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A HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION
Vol. III.
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
A HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION OF SPAIN. In four vol-
umes, octavo.
A HISTORY OF AURICULAR CONFESSION AND INDUL-
GENCES IN THE LATIN CHURCH. In three volumes, oc-
tavo.
AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SACERDOTAL CELIBACY IN
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Third edition. (In prepara-
tion.)
A FORMULARY OF THE PAPAL PENITENTIARY IN
THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. One volume, octavo. (Out
of print.)
SUPERSTITION AND FORCE. Essays on The Wager of Law,
The Wager of Battle, The Ordeal, Torture. Fourth edition, re-
vised. In one volume, 12mo.
STUDIES IN CHURCH HISTORY. The Else of the Temporal
Power, Benefit of Clergy, Excommunication, The Early Church
and slavery. Second edition. In one volume, 12mo.
CHAPTERS FROM THE RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF SPAIN,
CONNECTED WITH THE INQUISITION. Censorship of the
Press, Mystics and Illuminati, Endemoniadas, El Santo Nino de la
Guardia, Brianda de Bardaxi. In one volume, 12mo.
THE MORISCOS OF SPAIN. THEIR CONVERSION AND
EXPULSION. In one volume, 12mo.
A HISTORY OF
THE INQUISITION
OP
THE MIDDLE AGES.
BY
HENRY CHAKLES LEA, LL.D.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
Vol. III.
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO. Ltd.
1906
All rights reserved
NOV 9 1«lfl
Copyright, 1887, by Harper & Brothers.
First published elsewhere. Reprinted February, 1906.
All rights reset ved.
Xorrxmorj ^rcss.
Berwick & Smith Co., Norwood. Mass., U.S.A.
CONTENTS.
BOOK III.— SPECIAL FIELDS OF INQUISITORIAL ACTIVITY.
Chapter I. — The Spiritual Franciscans.
Page
Dissensions in the Franciscan Order from Elias to John of Parma . . 1
Joachim of Flora. — His Reputation as a Prophet 10
His Apocalyptic Speculations as to the Third Era 14
Adopted by the Spiritual Franciscans 18
The Everlasting Gospel. — Its Condemnation 20
The Spirituals Compromised. — John of Parma Removed 23
Persistence of the Joachites 25
Increasing Strife over Poverty 27
Bull Exiit qui seminat 30
Persecution of Italian Spirituals 32
The French Spirituals. — Jean Pierre Olivi 42
Arnaldo de Vilanova 52
Disputation before Clement V. — Decision of Council of Vienne . . . 57
Renewed Persecution of the Spirituals 61
Commencement of Rebellion. — Dissensions among Them 62
Election of John XXII. — His Character 66
He Enforces Obedience and Creates a Heresy 69
Bloody Persecution of the Olivists 73
They Form a New Church 79
Their Fanaticism. — Naprous Boneta .81
Suppression of the Sect. — Its Career in Aragon 84
Jean de la Rochetaillade. — Remains of Joachitism 86
Chapter II. — Guglielma and Dolcino.
Incarnation of Holy Ghost in Guglielma 90
The Guglielmites Form a New Church 94
Prosecuted by tho Inquisition 98
vi CONTENTS.
Page
Fate of the Sectaries 100
The Order of Apostles. — Spiritual Tendencies 103
Gherardo Segarelli. — Burned in 1300 104
Dolcino Assumes the Leadership 109
His Open Revolt. — Suppressed after Four Crusades 113
Continuance and Character of the Heresy 120
Chapter III. — The Fraticelli.
Question Raised as to the Poverty of Christ 129
Reaction against the Holiness of Poverty 130
Doctrine of the Poverty of Christ Declared a Heresy 134
It Complicates the Quarrel with Louis of Bavaria 135
Marsiglio of Padua and William of Ockham 139
Gradual Estrangement of the Franciscans 142
Louis Deposes John XXII. as a Heretic 145
Michele da Cesena Revolts 147
Utility of the Inquisition. — Submission of the Antipope . . . . 149
Struggle in Germany. — The Franciscans Support Louis 153
Louis gradually Gains Strength. — His Death 156
Dissident Franciscans Known as Fraticelli 158
Sympathy for them under Persecution 160
Their Tenets 162
Fraticelli in France and Spain 167
Orthodox Ascetism. — Jesuats. — Observantines 171
The Observantines Replace and Suppress the Fraticelli 174
Chapter IV. — Political Heresy Utilized by the Church.
Denial of Papal Claims Pronounced Heresy 181
The Stedingers. — Tithes Enforced by Crusades 182
Crusades to Support Italian Interests of Papacy 189
Importance of Inquisition as a Political Agency 190
Advantage of the Charge of Heresy 191
Manfred of Naples. — The Colonnas. — Ferrara 193
John XXII. and the Visconti 196
Cola di Rienzo. — The Maffredi 203
Use of Inquisition in the Great Schism 204
Case of Thomas Connecte 208
Girolamo Savonarola . . 209
CONTENTS. vii
Chapter V. — Political Heresy Utilized by the State.
Par*
Use of Inquisition by Secular Potentates 238
The Templars. — Growth and Relations of the Order 238
Causes of its Downfall. — Facilities Furnished by the Inquisition 249
Papal Complicity Sought. — Use made of Inquisition . . . . 257
Errors Charged against the Templars 263
The Question of their Guilt 264
Vacillation of Clement. — The Assembly of Tours 277
Bargain between King and Pope. — Clement Joins the Prosecu-
tion 281
Prosecution throughout Europe. — Its Methods in France . . . 284
The Papal Commission. — Its Proceedings 289
Defence Prevented by Burning those who Retract 295
Proceedings in England. — The Inquisition Necessary . . . . 298
Action in Lorraine and Germany 301
In Italy and the East 304
In Spain and Majorca 310
Torture in Preparation for the Council of Vienne 317
Arbitrary Proceedings Required at the Council 319
Disposition of Property and Persons of the Order 322
Fate of de Molay 325
Popular Sympathies 326
Distribution of the Property of the Order 329
Case of Doctor Jean Petit 334
Case of Joan of Arc. — Condition of the French Monarchy . . . . 338
Career of Joan up to her Capture 340
The Inquisition Claims her. — Delivered to the Bishop of Beau-
vais 357
Her Trial 360
Her Condemnation and Execution 372
Her Imitators and her Rehabilitation 376
Chapter VI. — Sorcery and Occult Arts.
Satan and the Spirit World . 379
Incubi and Succubi 383
Human Ministers of Satan. — Sorcerers 385
Penalties under the Roman Law 392
Struggle between Pagan and Christian Theurgy 393
Repression of Sorcery by the Early Church 395
.1
yiii CONTENTS.
Magic Practices of the Barbarians 400
Leniency of Barbarian Legislation 408
Legislation of Church and State in Carlovingian Period 412
Practical Toleration in Early Mediaeval Period 416
Indifference of Secular Legislation 427
The Inquisition Assumes Jurisdiction 434
All Magic Becomes Heretical 435
Astrology. — Pietro di Abano. — Cecco d'Ascoli 437
Divination by Dreams 446
Comminatory Church Services 447
The Inquisition Stimulates Sorcery by Persecution 448
Unfortunate Influence of John XXII 452
Growth of Sorcery in the Fourteenth Century 454
Increase in the Fifteenth Century 464
Case of the Marechal de Rais 468
Enrique de Villena 489
Chapter VII. — Witchcraft.
Its Origin in the Fifteenth Century 492
The Sabbat. — Regarded1 at first as a Diabolic Illusion 493
Adopted by the Church as a Reality 497
Its Ceremonies 500
Power and Malignity of the Witch 501
TLe Church Helpless to Counteract her Spells 506
Belief Stimulated by Persecution 508
Witches Lose Power when Arrested 509
Secular and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction over Witchcraft 511
Inquisitorial Process as Applied to Witchcraft 513
Case of the Witches of the Canavese 518
Case of the Vaudois of Arras 519
Slow Development of the Witchcraft Craze 534
Stimulated by the Inquisition and the Church . . 538
Influence of the Malleus Maleficarum 543
Opposition to the Inquisition. — France. — Cornelius Agrippa . . . 544
Opposition of Venice. — The Witches of Brescia ....... 546
Terrible Development in the Sixteenth Century 549
Chapter VIII. — Intellect and Faith.
Intellectual Aberrations not Dangerous 550
Theological Tendencies and Development 551
CONTENTS. jx
Roger Bacon 552
Nominalism and Realism 555
Rivalry between Philosophy and Theology 557
Averrhoism 558
Toleration in Italy in the Fifteenth Century 565
Modified Averrhoism. — Pomponazio. — Nifo 574
Raymond Lully 578
Evolution of Dogma. — The Beatific Vision 590
The Immaculate Conception 596
Censorship of the Press 612
Chapter IX. — Conclusion.
Omissions of the Inquisition. — The Greek Heretics . . . . . . 616
Qusestuari, or Pardoners 621
Simony 624
Demoralization of the Church 627
Morals of the Laity 641
Materials for the Improvement of Humanity 645
The Reformation Inevitable 647
Encouraging Advance of Humanity 649
Appendix of Documents 651
Index 665
THE INQUISITION.
BOOK III.
SPECIAL FIELDS OF INQUISITORIAL ACTIVITY.
CHAPTER I.
THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
In a former chapter we considered the Mendicants as an active
agency in the suppression of heresy. One of the Orders, how-
ever, by no means restricted itself to this function, and we have
now to examine the career of the Franciscans as the subjects of
the spirit of persecuting uniformity which they did so much to
render dominant.
While the mission of both Orders was to redeem the Church
from the depth of degradation into which it had sunk, the Domin-
icans were more especially trained to take part in the active busi-
ness of life. They therefore attracted the more restless and
aggressive spirits ; they accommodated themselves to the world,
like the Jesuits of later davs, and the worldliness which necessa-
rily came with success awakened little antagonism within the
organization. Power and luxury were welcomed and enjoyed.
Even Thomas Aquinas, who, as we have seen, eloquently defend-
ed, against William of Saint- Amour, the superlative holiness of
absolute poverty, subsequently admitted that poverty should be
proportioned to the object which an Order was fitted to at-
tain.*
* Th. Aquin. Sumin. Sec. Sec. Q. clxxxviii. art. 7. ad 1.
III.— 1
o THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
t
It was otherwise 'with the Franciscans. Though, as we have
seen, the founders determined not to render the Order a simply
contemplative one, the salvation of the individual through re-
treat from the world and its temptations bore a much larger part
in their motives than in those of Dominic and his followers.*
Absolute poverty and self-abnegation were its primal principles,
and it inevitably drew to itself the intellects which sought a ref-
uge from the temptations of life in self-absorbing contemplation,
in dreamy speculation, and in the renunciation of all that renders
life attractive to average human nature. As the organization
grew in wealth and power there were necessarily developed within
its bosom antagonisms in two directions. On the one hand, it
nourished a spirit of mysticism, which, though recognized in its
favorite appellation of the Seraphic Order, sometimes found the
trammels of orthodoxy oppressive. On the other, the men who
continued to cherish the views of the founders as to the supreme
obligation of absolute poverty could not reconcile their consciences
to the accumulation of wealth and its display in splendor, and
they rejected the ingenious devices which sought to accommo-
date the possession of riches with the abnegation of all posses-
sion.
In fact, the three vows, of poverty, obedience, and chastity,
were all equally impossible of absolute observance. The first
was irreconcilable with human necessities, the others with human
passions. As for chastity, the whole history of the Church shows
the impracticability of its enforcement. As for obedience, in the
* Even the great Franciscan preacher, Berthold of Ratisbon (who died in
1272) will concede only qualified merit to those who labor to save the souls of
their fellow-creatures, and such labors can easily be carried to excess. The duty
which a man owes to his own soul, in prayer and devotion, is of much greater
moment. — Beati Fr. Bertholdi a Ratisbona Sermones (Monachii, 1882, p. 29).
See also his comparison of the contemplative with the active life. The former
is Rachael,the latter is Leah, and is most perilous when wholly devoted to good
works (lb. pp. 44-5).
So the great Spiritual Franciscan, Pierre Jean Olivi — "Est igitur totius ra-
tionis summa, quod contemplatio est ex suo genere perfectior omni alia actione,"
though he admits that a lesser portion of time may allowably be devoted to the
salvation of fellow-creatures. — Franz Ehrle, Archiv fur Litteratur- und Kirchen-
geschichtc, 1887, p. 503.
THE QUESTION OF POVERTY. 3
sense attached to it of absolute renunciation of the will, its in-
compatibility with the conduct of human affairs was shown at an
early period, when Friar Haymo of Feversham overthrew Gregory,
the Provincial of Paris, and, not long afterwards, withstood the
general Elias, and procured his deposition. As for poverty, we
shall see to what inextricable complications it led, despite the
efforts of successive popes, until the imperious will and resolute
common-sense of John XXII. brought the Order from its seraphic
heights down to the every-day necessities of human life — at the
cost, it must be confessed, of a schism. The trouble was increased
by the fact that St. Francis, foreseeing the efforts which would be
made to evade the spirit of the Rule, had, in his Testament, strictly
forbidden all alterations, glosses, and explanations, and had com-
manded that these instructions should be read in all chapters
of the Order. With the growth of the Franciscan legend,
moreover, the Rule was held to be a special divine revelation,
equal in authority to the gospel, and St. Francis was glorified until
he became a being rather divine than human.*
Even before the death of the founder, in 1226, a Franciscan is
found in Paris openly teaching heresies — of what nature we are
not told, but probably the mystic reveries of an overwrought
brain. As yet there was no Inquisition, and, as he was not sub-
ject to episcopal jurisdiction, he was brought before the papal
legate, where he asserted many things contrary to the orthodox
faith, and was imprisoned for life. This foreshadowed much that
was to follow, though there is a long interval before we hear
again of similar examples, f
The more serious trouble concerning poverty was not long in
developing itself. Next to St. Francis himself in the Order stood
Elias. Before Francis went on his mission to convert the Soldan
he had sent Elias as provincial beyond the sea, and on his return
from the adventure he brought Elias home with him. At the
first general chapter, held in 1221, Francis being too much en-
* Thom. de Eccleston de Adventu Minorum Coll. v. — S. Francis. Testament.
(Opp. 1849, p. 48). — Nicolai. PP. III. Bull. Exiitqui seminat (Lib. v. Sexto xii. 3).
—Lib. Sententt. Inq. Tolos. pp. 301, 303.
tChron. Turonens. ann. 1326 (D. Bouquet, XVIII. 319). — Alberic. Trium
Font. Chron. ann. 1228.
4 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
feebled to preside, Elias acted as spokesman and Francis sat at
his feet, pulling his gown when he wanted anything said. In
1223 we hear of Caesarius, the German provincial, going to Italy
" to the blessed Francis or the Friar Elias." When, through in-
firmity or inability to maintain discipline, Francis retired from
the generalate, Elias was vicar-general of the Order, to whom
Francis submitted himself as humbly as the meanest brother, and
on the death of the saint, in October, 1226, it was Elias who noti-
fied the brethren throughout Europe of the event, and informed
them of the Stigmata, which the humility of Francis had always
concealed. Although in February, 1227, Giovanni Parent i of Flor-
ence, was elected general, Elias seems practically to have retained
control. Parties were rapidly forming themselves in the Order,
and the lines between them were ever more sharply drawn. Elias
was worldly and ambitious ; he had the reputation of being one
of the ablest men of affairs in Italy ; he could foresee the power
attaching to the command of the Order, and he had not much
scruple as to the means of attaining it. He undertook the erec-
tion of a magnificent church at Assisi to receive the bones of the
humble Francis, and he was unsparing in his demands for money
to aid in its construction. The very handling of money was an
abomination in the eyes of all true brethren, yet all the prov-
inces were called upon to contribute, and a marble coffer was
placed in front of the building to receive the gifts of the pious.
This was unendurable, and Friar Leo went to Perugia to consult
with the blessed Gilio, who had been the third associate to join
St. Francis, who said it was contrary to the precepts of the found-
er. " Shall I break it, then ?" inquired Leo. " Yes," replied Gilio,
k> if you are dead, but if you are alive, let it alone, for you will
not be able to endure the persecution of Elias." Notwithstand-
ing this warning, Leo went to Assisi, and with the assistance of
some comrades broke the coffer ; Elias filled all Assisi with his
wrath, and Leo took refuge in a hermitage.*
* Frat. Jordani Chron. c. 9, 14, 17, 31, 50 (Analecta Franciscana, Quaracchi,
1885, I. 4-6, 11, 16).— S. Francis. Testament. (Opp. p. 47); Ejusd. Epistt. vi.,
vii., viii. (lb. 10-11).— Auioni Legenda S. Francisci, p. 106 (Roma, 1880).— Wad-
ding, ann. 1229, No. 2.— Chron. Glassberger ann. 1227 (Analect. Franciscana II
p. 45).
ELIAS GENERAL MINISTER 5
When the edifice was sufficiently advanced, a general chapter
was held in 1230 to solemnize the translation of the saintly corpse.
Elias sought to utilize the occasion for his own election to the
generalate by summoning to it only those brethren on whose
support he could reckon, but Giovanni got wind of this and made
the summons general. Elias then caused the translation to be ef-
fected before the brethren had assembled ; his faction endeavored
to forestall the action of the chapter by carrying him from his
cell, breaking open the doors, and placing him in the general's
seat. Giovanni appeared, and after tumultuous proceedings his
friends obtained the upper hand ; the disturbers were scattered
among the provinces, and Elias retreated to a hermitage, where
he allowed his hair and beard to grow, and through this show of
sanctity obtained reconciliation to the Order. Finally, in the
chapter of 1232, his ambition was rewarded. Giovanni was de-
posed and he was elected general.*
These turbulent intrigues were not the only evidence of the
rapid degeneracy of the Order. Before Francis's Testament was
five years old his commands against evasions of the Rule by cun-
ning interpretations had been disregarded. The chapter of 1231
had applied to Gregory IX. to know whether the Testament was
binding upon them in this respect, and he replied in the negative,
for Francis could not bind his successors. They also asked about
the prohibition to hold money and property, and Gregory ingen-
iously suggested that this could be effected through third par-
ties, who could hold money and pay debts for them, arguing that
such persons should not be regarded as their agents, but as the
agents of those who gave the money or of those to whom it was
to be paid. These elusory glosses of the Rule were not accepted
without an energetic opposition which threatened a schism, and it
is easy to imagine the bitterness with which the sincere members
of the Order watched its rapid degeneracy ; nor was this bitterness
diminished by the use which Elias made of his position. His car-
nality and cruelty, we are told, convulsed the whole Order. His
rule was arbitrary, and for seven years, in defiance of the regula-
tions, he held no general chapter. He levied exactions on all the
* Thomae de Eccleston Collat. xn.— Jordani Chron. c. 01 (Analecta Franc. L
19).— Cbron. Anon. (lb. I. 289).
6 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
provinces to complete the great structure at Assisi. Those who
resisted him were relegated to distant places. Even while yet only
vicar he had caused St. Anthony of Padua, who had come to As-
sisi to worship at the tomb of Francis, to be scourged to the blood,
when Anthony only expostulated with, " May the blessed God for-
give you, brethren !" "Worse was the fate of Caesarius of Speier,
who had been appointed Provincial of Germany in 1221 by St.
Francis himself, and had built up the Order to the north of the
Alps. He was the leader of the puritan malcontents, who were
known as Caesarians, and he felt the full wrath of Elias. Thrown
into prison, he lay there in chains for two years. At length the
fetters were removed, and, early in 1239, his jailer having left the
door of his cell open, he ventured forth to stretch his cramped
limbs in the wintry sun. The jailer returned and thought that he
was attempting to escape. Fearing the pitiless anger of Elias, he
rushed after the prisoner and dealt him a mortal blow with a
cudgel. Caesarius was the first, but by no means the last, martyr
who shed his blood for the strict observance of a Eule breathing
nothing but love and charity.*
The cup at last was full to overflowing. In 1237 Elias had
sent visitors to the different provinces whose conduct caused
general exasperation. The brethren of Saxony appealed to him
from their visitor, and, finding this fruitless, they carried their com-
plaint to Gregory. The pope at length was roused to intervene.
A general chapter was convened in 1239, when, after a stormy
scene in presence of Gregory and nine cardinals, the pope finally
announced to Elias that his resignation would be received. Pos-
sibly in this there may have been political as well as ascetic mo-
tives. Elias was a skilful negotiator, and was looked upon with a
friendly eye by Frederic II., who forthwith declared that the dis-
* Gregor. PP. IX. Bull. Quo ehngati (Pet. Rodulphii Hist. Seraph. Relig. Lib. n.
fol. 164-5).— Rodulphii op. cit. Lib. n. fol. 177.— Chron. Glassberger, ann. 1230,
1231 (Analecta II. 50, 56).— Frat. Jordan! Chron. c. 18, 19, 61 (Analecta I. 7, 8,'
19).— Franz Ehrle (Archiv fur Litt.- u. Kirchengeschichte, 1886, p. 123).— Wad-
ding, ann. 1239, No. 5.
The ingenious casuistry with which the Conventuals satisfied themselves that
the device of Gregory IX. enabled them to grow rich without transgressing the
Rule is seen in their defence before Clement VI, in 1311, as printed by Franz
Ehrle (Archiv fur Litt.- u. Kirchengeschichte, 1887, pp. 107-8).
TWO PARTIES FORMED. 7
missal was done in his despite, for Elias was at the time engaged
in an effort to heal the irremediable breach between the papacy
and the empire. Certain it is that Elias at once took refuge with
Frederic and became his intimate companion. Gregory made an
effort to capture him by inviting him to a conference. Failing in
this, a charge was brought against him of visiting poor women at
Cortona without permission, and on refusing to obey a summons
he was excommunicated.*
Thus already in the Franciscan Order there were established
two well-defined parties, which came to be known as the Spirituals
and the Conventuals, the one adhering to the strict letter of the
Rule, the other willing to find excuses for its relaxation in obedi-
ence to the wants of human nature and the demands of worldli-
ness. After the fall of Elias the former had the supremacy dur-
ing the brief generalates of Alberto of Pisa, and Hay mo of Fever-
sham. In 1244 the Conventuals triumphed in the election of Cres-
cenzio Grizzi da Jesi, under whom occurred what the Spirituals
reckoned as the " Third Tribulation," for, in accordance with their
apocalyptic speculations, they were to undergo seven tribulations
before the reign of the Holy Ghost should usher in the Millennium.
Crescenzio followed in the footsteps of Elias. Under Hay mo, in
1242, there had been an attempt to reconcile with the Rule Greg-
ory's declaration of 1231. Four leading doctors of the Order, with
Alexander Hales at their head, had issued the Declaratio Quatuor
Magistrorum, but even their logical subtlety had failed. The Or-
der was constantly growing, it was constantly acquiring property,
* Jordani Chron. c. 62, 63 (Analecta I. 18-19).— Thomae de Eccleston Collat.
xii. — Chron. Glassberger, aim. 1239 (Analecta II. 60-1). — Huillard-Brgholles,
In trod. p. Din. ; lb. VI. 69-70.
Elias still managed to excite disturbance in the Order; he died excommuni-
cate, and a zealous Franciscan guardian had his remains dug up and cast upon
a dunghill. Fra" Salimbene gives full details of his evil ways, and the tyran-
nous maladministration which precipitated his downfall. After his secession to
Frederic II. a popular rhyme was current throughout Italy —
" Hor attorna fratt Helya,
Ke pres' ha la mala via."
Salimbene Chronica, Parma, 1857, pp. 401-13.
Affd, however, asserts that he was absolved on his death-bed. — Vita del Beato
Gioanni di Parma, Parma, 1777, p. 31. Cf. Chron. Glassberger ann. 1243^4.
g THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
and its needs were constantly increasing. A bull of Gregory IX.
in 1239, authorizing the Franciscans of Paris to acquire additional
land with which to enlarge their monastery of Saint-Germain-des-
Pres, is an example of what was going on all over Europe. In
124:4:, at the chapter which elected Crescenzio, the Englishman,
John Kethene, succeeded, against the opposition of nearly the
whole body of the assembly, in obtaining the rejection of Greg-
ory's definition, but the triumph of the Puritans was short-lived.
Crescenzio sympathized with the laxer party, and applied to In-
nocent IV. for relief. In 1245 the pope responded with a decla-
ration in which he not only repeated the device of Gregory IX.
by authorizing deposits of money with parties who were to be re-
garded as the agents of donors and creditors, but ingeniously as-
sumed that houses and lands, the ownership of which was forbid-
den to the Order, should be regarded as belonging to the Holy
See, which granted their use to the friars. Even papal authority
could not render these transparent subterfuges satisfying to the
consciences of the Spirituals, and the growing worldliness of the
Order provoked continuous agitation. Crescenzio before taking
the vows had been a jurist and physician, and there was further
complaint that he encouraged the brethren in acquiring the vain
and sterile science of Aristotle rather than in studying divine wis-
dom. Under Simone da Assisi, Giacopo Manf redo, Matteo da Monte
Eubiano, and Lucido, seventy-two earnest brethren, finding Cres-
cenzio deaf to their remonstrances, prepared to appeal to Innocent.
He anticipated them, and obtained from the pope in advance a
decision under which he scattered the recalcitrants in couples
throughout the provinces for punishment. Fortunately his reign
was short. Tempted by the bishopric of Jesi, he resigned, and
in 1248 was succeeded by Giovanni Borelli, better known as
John of Parma, who at the time was professor of theology in
the University of Paris.*
* Thoinae de Ecclest. Collat. vin., xn.— Wadding, aun. 1242. No. 2; ann.
1245, No. 16. — Potthast No. 10825.— Angeli Clarinens. Epist. Excusator (Franz
Ehrle, Archiv fur Litt.- u. Kirchengeschichte, 1885, p. 535; 1886, pp. 113, 117,
120).— Hist. Tribulation. (lb. 1886, pp. 256 sqq.).
The Historia Tribulationum reflects the contempt of the Spirituals for human
learning. Adam was led to disobedience by a thirst for knowledge, and returned
to grace by faith and not by dialectics, or geometry or astrology. The evil in*
JOHN OF PARMA. 9
The election of John of Parma marked a reaction in favor of
strict observance. The new general was inspired with a holy
zeal to realize the ideal of St. Francis. The exiled Spirituals were
recalled and allowed to select their own domiciles. During the
first three years John visited on foot the whole Order, sometimes
with two, and sometimes with only one companion, in the most
humble guise, so that he was unrecognized, and could remain in a
convent for several days, observing its character, when he would
reveal himself and reform its abuses. In the ardor of his zeal he
spared the feelings of no one. A lector of the Mark of Ancona,
returning home from Rome, described the excessive severity of a
sermon preached by him, saying that the brethren of the Mark
would never have allowed any one to say such things to them ;
and when asked why the masters who were present had not in-
terfered, he replied, " How could they ? It was a river of fire
which flowed from his lips." He suspended the declaration of In-
nocent TV. until the pontiff, better informed, could be consulted.
It was, however, impossible for him to control the tendencies to
relaxation of the Rule, which were ever growing stronger, and his
efforts to that end only served to strengthen disaffection which
finally grew to determined opposition. After consultation between
some influential members of the Order it was resolved to bring
before Alexander IY. formal accusations against him and the
friends who surrounded him. The attitude of the Spirituals, in
fact, fairly invited attack.*
To understand the position of the Spirituals at this time, and
dustry of the arts of Aristotle, and the seductive sweetness of Plato's eloquence
are Egyptian plagues in the Church (lb. 264-5). It was an early tradition
of the Order that Francis had predicted its ruin through overmuch learning
(Amoni, Legenda S. Francisci, App. cap. xi.).
Karl Miiller (Die Anfange des Minoritenordens, Freiburg, 1885, p. 180.) as-
serts that the election of Crescenzio was a triumph of the Puritans, and that lie
was known for his flaming zeal for the rigid observance of the Rule. So far from
this being the case, on the very night of his election he scolded the zealots (Th.
Eccleston Collat. xn.), and the history of his generalate confirms the view taken
of him by the Hist. Tribulationum. Affo (Vita di Gioanni di Parma, pp. 31-2) as-
sumes that he endeavored to follow a middle course, and ended by persecuting
the irreconcilables.
* Hist. Tribulat. (loc cit. 1886, pp. 267-8, 274).— Affo, pp. 38-9, 54, 97-8.—
Wadding, ann. 1256, No. 2.
10 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
subsequently, it is necessary to cast a glance at one of the most
remarkable spiritual developments of the thirteenth century. Its
opening years had witnessed the death of Joachim of Flora, a
man who may be regarded as the founder of modern mysticism.
Sprung from a rich and noble family, and trained for the life of a
courtier under Roger the Xorman Duke of Apulia, a sudden de-
sire to see the holy places took him, while yet a youth, to the
East, with a retinue of servitors. A pestilence was raging when
he reached Constantinople, which so impressed him with the mis-
eries and vanities of life that he dismissed his suite and continued
his voyage as an humble pilgrim with a single companion. His
legend relates that he fell in the desert overcome with thirst, and
had a vision of a man standing by a river of oil, and saying to
him, " Drink of this stream," which he did to satiety, and when
he awoke, although previously illiterate, he had a knowledge of
all Scripture. The following Lent he passed in an old well on
Mount Tabor ; in the night of the Resurrection a great splendor
appeared to him, he was tilled with divine light to understand the
concordance of the Old and Xew Laws, and every difficulty and
every obscurity vanished. These tales, repeated until the seven-
teenth century, show the profound and lasting impression which
he left upon the minds of men.*
Thenceforth his life was dedicated to the service of God. Re-
turning home, he avoided his father's house, and commenced preach-
ing to the people ; but this was not permissible to a layman, so he
entered the priesthood and the severe Cistercian Order. Chosen
Abbot of Corazzo, he fled, but was brought back and forced to as-
sume the duties of the office, till he visited Rome, in 1181, and ob-
tained from Lucius III. permission to lay it down. Even the severe
Cistercian discipline did not satisfy his thirst for austerity, and
he retired to a hermitage at Pietralata, where his reputation for
sanctity drew disciples around him, and in spite of his yearning
for solitude he found himself at the head of a new Order, of which
the Rule, anticipating the Mendicants in its urgency of poverty,
was approved by Celestin III. in 1196. Already it had spread
from the mother-house of San Giovanni in Fiore, and numbered
several other monasteries.f
• Tocco, L'Eresia nel Medio Evo, Firenze, 1884, pp. 265-70. — Profetie dell'
Abate Gioachino, Venezia, 1646, p. 8.
t Tocco, op. cit. pp. 271-81.— Ccelestin. PP. III. Epist. 279.
JOACHIM OF FLORA. u
Joachim considered himself inspired, and though in 1200 he
submitted his works unreservedly to the Holy See, he had no hesi-
tation in speaking of them as divinely revealed. During his life-
time he enjoyed the reputation of a prophet. When Kichard of
England and Philip Augustus were at Messina, they sent for him
to inquire as to the outcome of their crusade, and he is said to
have foretold to them that the hour had not yet come for the de-
liverance of Jerusalem. Others of his fulfilled prophecies are also
related, and the mystical character of the apocalyptic speculations
which he left behind him served to increase, after his death, his
reputation as a seer. His name became one customarily employed
for centuries when any dreamer or sharper desired to attract at-
tention, and quite a literature of forgeries grew up which were
ascribed to him. Somewhat more than a century after his death
we find the Dominican Pipino enumerating a long catalogue of
his works with the utmost respect for his predictions. In 1319
Bernard Delicieux places unlimited confidence in a prophetical
book of Joachim's in which there were representations of all fut-
ure popes with inscriptions and symbols under them. Bernard
points out the different pontiffs of his own period, predicts the
fate of John XXII., and declares that for two hundred years there
bad been no mortal to whom so much was revealed as to Joachim.
Cola di Bienzo found in the pseudo-prophecies of Joachim the en-
couragement that inspired his second attempt to govern Borne.
The Franciscan tract De ultima ^Etate Ecclesice, written in 1356,
and long ascribed to "Wickliff, expresses the utmost reverence for
Joachim, and frequently cites his prophecies. The Liber Con-
formitatum, in 1385, quotes repeatedly the prediction ascribed to
Joachim as to the foundation of the two Mendicant Orders, sym-
bolized in those of the Dove and of the Crow, and the tribulations
to which the former was to be exposed. Not long afterwards the
hermit Telesforo da Cosenza drew from the same source prophe-
cies as to the course and termination of the Great Schism, and the
line of future popes until the coming of Antichrist — prophecies
which attracted sufficient attention to call for a refutation from
Henry of Hesse, one of the leading theologians of the day. Car-
dinal Peter d'Ailly speaks with respect of Joachim's prophecies
concerning Antichrist, and couples him with the prophetess St.
Hildegarda, while the rationalistic Cornelius Agrippa endeavors
12 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
to explain his predictions by the occult powers of numbers. Hu-
man credulity preserved his reputation as a prophet to modern
times, and until at least as late as the seventeenth century prophe-
cies under his name were published, containing series of popes
with symbolical figures, inscriptions, and explanations, apparently
similar to the Vaticinia Pontificum which so completely possessed
the confidence of Bernard Delicieux. Even in the seventeenth
century the Carmelites printed the Oraculum Angelicum of Cyril,
with its pseudo-Joachitic commentary, as a proof of the antiquity
of their Order.*
Joachim's immense and durable reputation as a prophet was
due not so much to his genuine works as to the spurious ones cir-
culated under his name. These were numerous — Prophecies of
Cyril, and of the Erythraean Sybil, Commentaries on Jeremiah, the
Vaticinia Pontificum, the De Oneribus Ecclesice and De Septem
Temporibus Ecclesioe. In some of these, reference to Frederic II.
would seem to indicate a period of composition about the year
1250, when the strife between the papacy and empire was at the
hottest, and the current prophecies of Merlin were freely drawn
upon in framing their exegesis. There can be little doubt that
their authors were Franciscans of the Puritan party, and their
fearless denunciations of existing evils show how impatient had
grown the spirit of dissatisfaction. The apocalyptic prophecies
* Lib. Concordiae Proef. (Venet. 1519). — Fr. Francisci Pipini Chron. (Muratori
S. R. I. IX. 498-500).— Rog. Hovedens. ann. 1190.— MSS. Bib. Nat, fonds latin, No
4270, fol. 260-2.— Couiba, La Riforma in Italia, I. 388.— Lech ler's Wickliffe, Lori-
mer's Translation, II. 321.— Lib. Conformitat. Lib. i. Fruct. i. P. 2; Fruct. ix. P. 2
(fol. 12, 91). — Telesphori de magnis Tribulationibus Prceem. — Henric. de Hassia
contra Vaticin. Telesphori c. xi. (Pez Thesaur. I. n. 521). — Franz Ehrle (Archiv
fur Lit.- u. Kirchengeschichte, 1886, p. 331). — P. d'Ailly Concord. Astron.Veritat.
c. lix. (August. Vindel. 1490). — H. Cornel. Agripp. de Occult. Philosoph. Lib. n.
c. ii.
The Vaticinia Pontificum of the pseudo-Joachim long remained a popular
oracle. I have met with editions of Venice issued in 1589, 1600, 1605, and 1646,
of Ferrara in 1591, of Frankfort in 1608, of Padua in 1625, and of Naples in 1660,
an J there are doubtless numerous others.
Dante represents Bonaventura as pointing out the saints —
" Raban e quivi, e lucemi dallato
II Calavrese abate Giovacchino
Di spirito profetico dotato." — (Paradiso xn.).
THE PSEUDO-JOACHIM.— HIS GENUINE WRITINGS. 13
were freely interpreted as referring to the carnal worldliness which
pervaded all orders in the Church ; all are reprobate, none are
elect ; Rome is the Whore of Babylon, and the papal curia the
most venal and extortionate of all courts ; the Roman Church is
the barren fig-tree, accursed by Christ, which shall be abandoned
to the nations to be stripped. It would be difficult to exaggerate
the bitterness of antagonism displayed in these writings, even to
the point of recognizing the empire as the instrument of God
which is to overthrow the pride of the Church. These outspoken
utterances of rebellion excited no little interest, especially within
the Order itself. Adam de Marisco, the leading Franciscan of
England, sends to his friend Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, some
extracts from these works which have been brought to him from
Italy. He speaks of Joachim as one justly credited with divine
insight into prophetic mysteries; he asks to have the fragments
returned to him after copying, and meanwhile commends to the
bishop's consideration the impending judgments of Providence
which are invited by the abounding wickedness of the time.*
Of Joachim's genuine writings the one which, perhaps, at-
tracted the most attention in his own day was a tract on the
nature of the Trinity, attacking the definition of Peter Lombard,
and asserting that it attributed a Quaternity to God. The subtle-
ties of theology were dangerous, and in place of proving the Mas-
ter of Sentences a heretic, Joachim himself narrowly escaped.
Thirteen years after his death, the great Council of Lateran, in
1215, thought his speculation sufficiently important to condemn
it as erroneous in an elaborate refutation, which was carried into
the canon law, and Innocent III. preached a sermon on the sub-
ject to the assembled fathers. Fortunately Joachim, in 1200, had
expressly submitted all his writings to the judgment of the Holy
See and had declared that he held the same faith as that of Rome.
The council, therefore, refrained from condemning him personally
* Pseudo-Joachim de Oneribus Ecclesiae c. iii., xv., xvi., xvii., xx.-, xxi., xxii.,
xxiii., xxx. — Ejusd. super Hieremiam c. i., ii., iii., etc. — Saliuibene p. 107. — Mon-
umenta Franciscana p. 147 (M. R. Series).
The author of the Commentary on Jeremiah had probably been disciplined
for freedom of speech in the pulpit, for (cap. i.) he denounces as bestial a license
to preach which restricts the liberty of the spirit, and only permits the preacher
to dispute on carnal vices.
1± THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
and expressed its approbation of his Order of Flora ; but notwith-
standing this the monks found themselves derided and insulted
as the followers of a heretic, until, in 1220, they procured from
Honorius III. a bull expressly declaring that he was a good Cath-
olic, and forbidding all detraction of his disciples.*
His most important writings, however, were his expositions of
Scripture composed at the request of Lucius III., Urban III., and
Clement III. Of these there were three — the Concordia, the De-
cachordon, or Psalterium decern Cordarum, and the Expositio in
ApocaJtjpsin. In these his system of exegesis is to find in every
incident under the Old Law the prefiguration of a corresponding
fact in chronological order under the ]Sew Dispensation, and by
an arbitrary parallelism of dates to reach forward and ascertain
what is yet to come. He thus determines that mankind is des-
tined to live through three states — the first under the rule of the
Father, which ended at the birth of Christ, the second under that
of the Son, and the third under the Holy Ghost. The reign of
the Son, or of the Xew Testament, he ascertains by varied apoca-
lyptic speculations is to last through forty-two generations, or 1260
years — for instance, Judith remained in widowhood three years
and a half, or forty-two months, which is 1260 days, the great
number representing the years through which the Xew Testament
is to endure, so that in the year 1260 the domination of the Holy
Ghost is to replace it. In the forty-second generation there will
be a purgation which will separate the wheat from the chaff — such
tribulations as man has never yet endured : fortunately they will
be short, or all flesh would perish utterly. After this, religion
will be renewed ; man will live in peace and justice and joy, as in
the Sabbath which closed the labors of creation ; all shall know
God, from sea to sea, to the utmost confines of the earth, and the
glory of the Holy Ghost shall be perfect. In that final abundance
of spiritual grace the observances of religion will be no longer
* Concil. Lateran. IV. c. 2.— Theiner Monument Slavor. Meridional. I. 63 —
Lib. i. Sexto, 1, 2 (Cap. Damnamus). — Wadding, ann. 1256, No. 8, 9. — Salim-
bene Chron. p. 103.
Nearly half a century later Thomas Aquinas still considered Joachim's specu-
lations on the Trinity worthy of elaborate refutation, and near the close of the
fourteenth century Eymerich reproduces the whole controversy. — Direct. Inqui-
sit. pp. 4-6, 15-17.
JOACHIM'S THIRD ERA. 15
requisite. As the paschal lamb was superseded by the Eucharist,
so the sacrifice of the altar will become superfluous. A new mo-
nastic Order is to arise which will convert the world ; contempla-
tive monachism is the highest development of humanity, and the
world will become, as it were, one vast monastery.*
In this scheme of the future elevation of man, Joachim recog-
nized fully the evils of his time. The Church he describes as
thoroughly given over to avarice and greed ; wholly abandoned
to the lusts of the flesh, it neglects its children, who are carried
off by zealous heretics. The Church of the second state, he says,
is Hagar, but that of the third state will be Sarah. With endless
amplitude he illustrates the progressive character of the relations
between God and man in the successive eras. The first state,
under God, was of the circumcision ; the second, under Christ, is
of the crucifixion ; the third, under the Holy Ghost, will be of
quietude and peace. Under the first was the order of the married ;
under the second, that of the priesthood ; under the third will be
that of monachism, which has already had its precursor in St. Ben-
edict. The first was the reign of Saul, the second that of David,
the third will be that of Solomon enjoying the plenitude of peace.
In the first, man was under the law, in the second under grace, in
the third he will be under ampler grace. The people of the first
state are symbolized by Zachariah the priest, those of the second
by John the Baptist, those of the third by Christ himself. In the
first state there was knowledge, in the second piety, in the third
will be plenitude of knowledge ; the first state was servitude, the
second was filial obedience, the third will be liberty ; the first state
was passed in scourging, the second in action, the third will be in
contemplation ; the first was in fear, the second in faith, the third
will be in love ; the first was of slaves, the second of freemen, the
third will be of friends ; the first was of old men, the second of
youths, the third will be of children ; the first was starlight, the
second dawn, the third will be perfect day ; the first was winter,
the second opening spring, the third will be summer; the first
brought forth nettles, the second roses, the third will bear lilies ;
* Joachiini Concordiae Lib. iv. c. 31, 34, 38; Lib. v. c. 58, 63, 65, 67, 68, 74,
78, 89, 118.
Joachim was held to have predicted the rise of the Mendicants (y. 43), but
his anticipations looked wholly to contemplative monachism.
IQ THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
the first was grass, the second grain in the ear, the third will be
the ripened wheat ; the first was water, the second wine, the third
will be oil. Finally, the first belongs to the Father, creator of all
things, the second to the Son, who assumed our mortal clay, the
third will belong to the pure Holy Spirit.*
It is a very curious fact that while Joachim's metaphysical
subtleties respecting the Trinity were ostentatiously condemned
as a dangerous heresy, no one seems at the time to have recognized
the far more perilous conclusions to be drawn from these apoca-
lyptic reveries. So far from being burned as heretical, they were
prized by popes, and Joachim was honored as a prophet until his
audacious imitators and followers developed the revolutionary doc-
trines to which they necessarily led. To us, for the moment, their
chief significance lies in the proof which they afford that the most
pious minds confessed that Christianity was practically a failure.
Mankind had scarce grown better under the Xew Law. Vices
and passions were as unchecked as they had been before the com-
ing of the Redeemer. The Church itself was worldly and carnal ;
in place of elevating man it had been dragged down to his level ;
it had proved false to its trust and was the exemplar of evil rather
than the pattern of good. To such men as Joachim it was impos-
sible that crime and misery should be the ultimate and irremedi-
able condition of human life, and yet the Atonement had thus far
done little to bring it nearer to the ideal. Christianity, therefore,
could not be a finality in man's existence upon earth; it was
merely an intermediate condition, to be followed by a further de-
velopment, in which, under the rule of the Holy Ghost, the law
of love, fruitlessly inculcated by the gospel, should at last become
the dominant principle, and men, released from carnal passions,
* Joachimi Concordiae Lib. i. Tract, ii. c. 6 ; it. 25, 26, 33; v. 2 21 60 65
66, 84.
The Commission of Anagni in 1255 by a strained interpretation of a passage
in the Concordia (n. i. 7) accused Joachim of having justified the schism of the
Greeks (Denifle, Archiv f. Litt.- u. K. 1885, p. 120). So far was he from this
that he never loses an occasion of decrying the Oriental Church, especiallv for
the marriage of its priests (e. g., v. 70, 72). Yet when he asserted that Antichrist
was already born in Rome, and it was objected to him that Babylon was assigned
as the birthplace, he had no hesitation in saying that Rome was the mystical
Babylon.— Rad. de Coggeshall Chron. (Bouquet, XVIII. 76).
SPREAD OF JOACHITIC IDEAS. 17
. should realize the glad promises so constantly held out before them
and so miserably withheld in the performance. Joachim himself
might seek to evade these deductions from his premises, yet others
could not fail to make them, and nothing could be more auda-
ciously subversive of the established spiritual and temporal order
of the Church.
Yet for a time his speculations attracted little attention and
no animadversion. It is possible that the condemnation of his
theory of the Trinity may have cast a shadow over his exegetical
works and prevented their general dissemination, but they were
treasured by kindred spirits, and copies of them were carried into
various lands and carefully preserved. Curiously enough, the first
response which they elicited was from the bold heretics known
as the Amaurians, whose ruthless suppression in Paris, about the
year 1210, we have already considered. Among their errors was
enumerated that of the three Eras, which was evidently derived
from Joachim, with the difference that the third Era had already
commenced. The power of the Father only lasted under the Mo-
saic Law ; with the advent of Christ all the sacraments of the Old
Testament were superseded. The reign of Christ has lasted till
the present time, but now commences the sovereignty of the Holy
Ghost ; the sacraments of the New Testament — baptism, the Eu-
charist, penitence, and the rest — are obsolete and to be discarded,
and the power of the Holy Ghost will operate through the per-
sons in whom it is incarnated. The Amaurians, as we have seen,
promptly disappeared, and the derivative sects — the Ortlibenses,
and the Brethren of the Free Spirit — seem to have omitted this
feature of the heresy. At all events, we hear nothing more of it
in that quarter.*
Gradually, however, the writings of Joachim obtained currency,
and with the ascription to him of the false prophecies which ap-
peared towards the middle of the century his name became more
widely known and of greater authority. In Provence and Lan-
guedoc, especially, his teachings found eager reception. Harried
successively by the crusades and the Inquisition, and scarce as
yet fairly reunited with the Church, those regions furnished an
* Rigord. de Gest. Phil. Aug. arm. 1210. — Guillel. Nangiac. arm. 1210. — Caesar.
Hcisterb. dist. v. c. xxii.
III.— 2
lg THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
ample harvest of earnest minds which might well seek in the
hoped-for speedy realization of Joachim's dreams compensation for
the miseries of the present. Kor did those dreams lack an apostle
of unquestionable orthodoxy. Hugues de Digne, a hermit of
Hyeres, had a wide reputation for learning, eloquence, and sanctity.
He had been Franciscan Provincial of Provence, but had laid down
that dignity to gratify his passion for austerity, and his sister,
St. Douceline, lived in a succession of ecstasies in which she was
lifted from the ground. Hugues was intimate with the leading
men of the Order ; Alexander Hales, Adam de Marisco, and the
general, John of Parma, are named as among his close friends.
With the latter, especially, he had the common bond that both
were earnest Joachites. He possessed all the works of Joachim,
genuine and spurious, he had the utmost confidence in their proph-
ecies, which he regarded as divine inspiration, and he did much
to extend the knowledge of them, which was not difficult, as he
himself had the reputation of a prophet.*
The Spiritual section of the Franciscans was rapidly becoming
leavened with these ideas. To minds inclined to mysticism, filled
with unrest, dissatisfied with the existing unfulfilment of their
ideal, and longing earnestly for its realization, there might well
be an irresistible fascination in the promises of the Calabrian ab-
bot, of which the term was now so rapidly approaching. If these
Joachitic Franciscans developed the ideas of their teacher with
greater boldness and definiteness, their ardor had ample excuse.
They were living witnesses of the moral failure of an effort from
which everything had been expected for the regeneration of hu-
manity. They had seen how the saintly teachings of Francis
and the new revelation of which he had been the medium were
perverted by worldly men to purposes of ambition and greed ;
how the Order, which should have been the germ of human re-
demption, was growing more and more carnal, and how its saints
were martyred by their fellows. Unless the universe were a fail-
ure, and the promises of God were lies, there must be a term to
* Salimbene Chron. pp. 97-109, 124, 318-20.— Chron. Glassberger ann. 1286.
— Vie de Douceline (Meyer, Recueil cTanciens Textes, pp. 142-46).
Salimbene, in enumerating the special intimates of John of Parma, character-
izes several of them as "great Joachites."
THE JOACHITES. 19
human wickedness ; and as the Gospel of Christ and the Rule of
Francis had not accomplished the salvation of mankind, a new
gospel was indispensable. Besides, Joachim had predicted that
there would arise a new religious Order which would rule the
world and the Church in the halcyon age of the Holy Ghost.
They could not doubt that this referred to the Franciscans as rep-
resented by the Spiritual group, which was striving to uphold in
all its strictness the Rule of the venerated founder.*
Such, we may presume, were the ideas which were troubling
the hearts of the earnest Spirituals as they pondered over the
prophecies of Joachim. In their exaltation many of them were
themselves given to ecstasies and visions full of prophetic insight.
Prominent members of the Order had openly embraced the Joa-
chitic doctrines, and his prophecies, genuine and spurious, were
applied to all events as they occurred. In 1248 Salimbene, the
chronicler, who was already a warm believer, met at the Francis-
can convent of Provins (Champagne) two ardent condisciples,
Gherardo da Borgo San Donnino and Bartolommeo Ghiscolo of
Parma. St. Louis was just setting forth on his ill-starred Egyp-
tian crusade. The Joachites had recourse to the pseudo-Joachim
on Jeremiah, and foretold that the expedition would be a failure,
that the king would be taken prisoner, and that pestilence would
decimate the host. This was not calculated to render them popu-
lar ; the peace of the good brethren was sadly broken by quarrels,
and the Joachites found it advisable to depart. Salimbene went
to Auxerre, Ghiscolo to Sens, and Gherardo to Paris, where his
learning secured for him admission to the university as the repre-
sentative of Sicily, and he obtained a chair in theology. Here for
four years he pursued his apocalyptic studies. f
* Protocoll. Commiss. Anagniae (Denifle, Archiv far Litteratur- und Kirchen-
geschichte, 1885, pp. 111-12).
t Hist. Tribulat. (ubi sup. pp. 178-9).— Salimbene, pp. 102, 233.
According to the exegesis of the Joachites, Frederic II. was to attain the age
of seventy. When he died, in 1250, Salimbene refused to believe it, and remained
incredulous until Innocent IV., in his triumphal progress from Lyons, came to
Ferrara, nearly ten months afterwards, and exchanged congratulations upon it.
Salimbene was present, and Fra Gherardino of Parma turned to him and said,
"You know it now ; leave your Joachim and apply yourself to wisdom " (lb. pp.
107, 227).
20 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
Suddenly, in 1254, Paris was startled with the appearance of a
book under the title of " The Everlasting Gospel "—a name derived
from the Apocalypse—" And I saw another angel fly in the midst
of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that
dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue,
and people" (Rev. xiv. 6). It consisted of Joachim's three un-
doubted works, with explanatory glosses, preceded by a long In-
troduction, in which the hardy author developed the ideas of the
prophet audaciously and uncompromisingly. The daring vent-
ure had an immediate and immense popular success, which shows
how profoundly the conviction which prompted it was shared
among- all classes. The rhvmes of Jean de Meung indicate that
the demand for it came from the laity rather than the clergy, and
that it was sought bv women as well as bv men —
" Ung livre de par le grant diable
Dit l'Evangile pardurable . . .
A Paris n'eust home ne feme
Au parvis devant Xostre-Dame
Qui lors avoir ne le p£ust
A transcrire, s'il li pleust." *
Nothing more revolutionary in spirit, more subversive of the
established order of the Church, can be conceived than the asser-
tions which thus aroused popular sympathy and applause. Joa-
chim's computations were accepted, and it was assumed absolute-
ly that in six years, in 1260, the reign of Christ would end and
the reign of the Holy Ghost begin. Already, in 1200, the spirit
of life had abandoned the Old and Xew Testaments in order to
give place to the Everlasting Gospel, consisting of the Concordia,
* Renan, Xouvelles Etudes, p. 296.
Joachim had already used the term Everlasting Gospel to designate the
spiritual interpretation of the Evangelists, which was henceforth to rule the
world. His disciple naturally considered Joachim's commentaries to be this
spiritual interpretation, and that they constituted the Everlasting Gospel to
which he furnished a Gloss and Introduction. The Franciscans were necessarily
the contemplative Order intrusted with its dissemination. (See Denifle, Archiv
fur Littcratur- etc., 1885, pp. 54-59, 61.) According to Denifle (pp. 67-70) the
publication of Gherardo consisted only of the Introduction and the Concordia.
The xVpocalypse and the Decachordon were to follow, but the venturesome en-
terprise was cut short.
THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL. 21
the Expositio, and the Decachordon — the development and spir-
itualization of all that had preceded it. Even as Joachim had
dwelt on the ascending scale of the three Eras, so the author
of the Introduction characterized the progressive methods of the
three Scriptures. The Old Testament is the first heaven, the
New Testament the second heaven, the Everlasting Gospel the
third heaven. The first is like the light of the stars, the second
like that of the moon, and the third like that of the sun ; the first
is the porch, the second the holy place, and the third the Holy of
Holies ; the first is the rind, the second the nut, the third the ker-
nel ; the first is earth, the second water, the third fire ; the first
is literal, the second spiritual, and the third is the law promised in
Jeremiah xxxi. The preaching and dissemination of this supreme
and eternal law of God is committed to the barefooted Order (the
Franciscans). At the threshold of the Old Law were three men,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob : at that of the New Law were three
others, Zachariah, John the Baptist, and Christ : and at that of
the coming age are three, the man in linen (Joachim), the Angel
with the sharp sickle, and the Angel with the sign of the living God
(Francis). In the blessed coming reign of the Holy Ghost men
will live under the law" of love, as in the first Era they lived in fear,
and in the second in grace. Joachim had argued against the con-
tinuance of the sacraments ; Gherardo regarded them as symbols
and enigmas, from which man would be liberated in the time to
come, for love would replace all the observances founded upon the
second Dispensation. This was destructive of the whole sacerdo-
tal system, which was to be swept away and relegated to the limbo
of the forgotten past ; and scarce less revolutionary was his bold
declaration that the Abomination of Desolation would be a pope
tainted with simony, wrho, towards the end of the sixth age, now
at hand, would obtain the papacy.*
* Protocol. Cornmiss. Anagniae (H. Denifle Archiv fur Litt.- etc., 1885, pp.
99-102, 109, 126, 135-6).
It appears to me that Father DenifiVs laborious research has sufficiently
proved that the errors commonly ascribed to the Everlasting Gospel (D'Argentre
I. i. 162-5 ; Eymeric. Direct. Inq. P. n. Q. 9 ; Hermann. Korneri Chron. ap.
Eccard. Corp. Hist. Med. iEvi. II. 849-51) are the strongly partisan accusations
sent to Rome by William of St. Amour (ubi sup. pp. 76-86) which have led to
22 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
The authorship of this bold challenge to an infallible Church
was long attributed to John of Parma himself, but there would
seem little doubt that it was the work of Gherardo— the outcome
of his studies and reveries during the four years spent in the Uni-
versity of Paris, although John of Parma possibly had a hand in
it. Certainly, as Tocco well points out, he at least sympathized
with it, for he never punished the author, in spite of the scandal
which it brought upon the Order, and Bernard Gui tells us that at
the time it was commonly ascribed to him. I have already re-
lated with what joy William of Saint Amour seized upon it in the
quarrel between the University and the Mendicants, and the ad-
vantage it momentarily gave the former. Under existing circum-
stances it could have no friends or defenders. It was too reckless
an onslaught on all existing institutions, temporal and spiritual.
The only thing to be done with it was to suppress it as quietly as
possible. Consideration for the Franciscan Order demanded this,
as well as the prudence which counselled that attention should
not be unduly called to it, although hundreds of victims had been
burned for heresies far less dangerous. The commission which sat
at Anagni in July, 1255, for its condemnation had a task over
which there could be no debate, but I have already pointed out
the contrast between the reserve with which it was suppressed and
the vindictive clamor with which Saint Amour's book against
the Mendicants was ordered to be burned.-
exaggerated misconceptions of its rebellious tendencies. Father Denifle, how-
ever, proceeds to state that the result of the commission of Anagni (Julv, 1255)
was merely the condemnation of the views of Gherardo, and that the works of
Joachim (except his tract against Peter Lombard) have never been condemned
by the Church. Yet when the exaggerations of William of St. Amour are
thrown aside, there is in reality little in principle to distinguish Joachim from
Gherardo ; and if the former was not condemned it was not the fault of the Com-
mission of Anagni, which classed both together and energetically endeavored to
prove Joachim a heretic, even to showing that he never abandoned his heresy on
the Trinity (ubi sup. pp. 137-41).
Yet if there was little difference in the letter, there was a marked divergence
in spirit between Joachim and his commentator— the former being constructive
and the latter destructive as regards the existing Church. See Tocco, Archivio
Storico Italiano, 1886.
* Matt. Paris ann. 1256 (Ed. 1644, p. 032).— Salimbene, p. 102.— Bern. Guidon.
RESIGNATION OF JOHN OF PARMA. 23
The Spiritual section of the Franciscans was fatally compro-
mised, and the worldly party, which had impatiently borne the
strict rule of John of Parma, saw its opportunity of gaining the
ascendency. Led by Bernardo da Bessa, the companion of Bona-
ventura, formal articles of accusation were presented to Alexander
IV. against the general. He was accused of listening to no ex-
planations of the Rule and Testament, holding that the privileges
and declarations of the popes were of no moment in comparison.
It was not hinted that he was implicated in the Everlasting Gos-
pel, but it was alleged that he pretended to enjoy the spirit of
prophecy and that he predicted a division of the Order between
those who procured papal relaxations and those who adhered to
the Rule, the latter of whom would flourish under the dew of
heaven and the benediction of God. Moreover, he was not ortho-
dox, but defended the errors of Joachim concerning the Trinity,
and his immediate comrades had not hesitated, in sermons and
tracts, to praise Joachim immoderately and to assail the leading
men of the Order. In this, as in the rest of the proceedings, the
studied silence preserved as to the Everlasting Gospel shows how
dangerous was the subject, and how even the fierce passions of the
strife shrank from compromising the Order by admitting that any
of its members Avere responsible for that incendiary production.*
Vit. Alex. PP. IV. (Muratori S. R. I. III. i. 593). Cf. Amalr. Auger. Vit. Alex. PP.
IV. (lb. III. ii. 404).
For the authorship of the Everlasting Gospel, see Tocco, LTHeresia nel Medio
Evo, pp. 473-4, and his review of Denifle and Haupt, Archivio Storico Italiano,
1886; Renan,pp. 248, 277; and Denifle, ubi sup. pp. 57-8.
One of the accusations brought against William of Saint Amour was that he
complained of the delay in condemning the Everlasting Gospel, to which he re-
plied with an allusion to the influence of those who defended the errors of
Joachim. — Dupin, Bib. des Autenrs fCccles. T. X. ch. vii.
Thomas of Cantimpre" assures us that Saint Amour would have won the day
against the Mendicant Orders but for the learning and eloquence of Albertus
Magnus. — Bonum Universale, Lib. n. c. ix.
* Wadding, ann. 1256, No. 2. — Affo (Lib. n. c. iv.) argues that John of Parma's
resignation was wholly spontaneous, that there were no accusations against him,
and that both the pope and the Franciscans were with difficulty persuaded to let
him retire. He quotes Salimbene (Chronica p. 137) as to the reluctance of the
chapter to accept his resignation, but does not allude to the assertion of the same
authority that John was obnoxious to Alexander and to many of the ministers
of the Order by reason of his too zealous belief in Joachim (lb. p. 131).
24 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
Alexander was easily persuaded, and a general chapter was
held in the Aracceli, February 2, 1257, over which he personally
presided. John of Parma was warned to resign, and did so,
pleading age, weariness, and disability. After a decent show of
resistance his resignation was accepted and he was asked to nom-
inate a successor. His choice fell upon Bonaventura, then only
thirty -four years of age, whose participation in the struggle with
the University of Paris had marked him as the most promising
man in the Order, while he was not identified with either faction.
He was duly elected, and the leaders of the movement required
him to proceed against John and his adherents. Bonaventura for
a while hesitated, but at length consented. Gherardo refused to
recant, and Bonaventura sent for him to come to Paris. In pass-
ing through Modena he met Salimbene, who had cowered before
the storm and had renounced Joachitism as a folly. The two
friends had a long colloquy, in which Gherardo offered to prove
that Antichrist was already at hand in the person of Alonso the
Wise of Castile. He was learned, pure-minded, temperate, modest,
amiable — in a word, a most admirable and lovable character ; but
nothing could wean him from his Joachitic convictions, though in
his trial discreet silence, as usual, was observed about the Everlast-
ing Gospel, and he was condemned as an upholder of Joachim's
Trinitarian speculations. Had he not been a Franciscan he would
have been burned. It was a doubtful mercv which consigned him
to a dungeon in chains and fed him on bread and water for eigh-
teen years, until his weary life came to an end. He never wavered
to the last, and his remains were thrust into a corner of the gar-
den of the convent where he died. The same fate awaited his
comrade Leonardo, and also another friar named Piero de' Nubili,
who refused to surrender a tract of John of Parma's.*
* Wadding, ann. 1256, No. 3-5.— Salimbene, pp. 102, 233-6.— Hist. Tribulat.
(Archiv fur L. u. K. 1886, p. 285).— Although Salimbene prudently abandoned
Joachitism, he never outgrew his belief in Joachim's prophetic powers. Many
years later he gives as a reason for suspecting the Segarellists, that if they were
of God, Joachim would have predicted them as he did the Mendicants (lb.
123-4).
The silence of the Historia Tribulationum with respect to the Everlasting
Gospel is noteworthy. By common consent that dangerous work seems to be
ignored by all parties.
PERSISTENCE OF THE JOACHITES. 25
Then John himself was tried by a special court, to preside over
which Alexander appointed Cardinal Caietano, afterwards Nicho-
las III. The accused readily retracted his advocacy of Joachim,
but his bearing irritated the judges, and, with Bonaventura's con-
sent, he would have shared the fate of his associates but for the
strenuous intercession of Ottoboni, Cardinal of S. Adrian, after-
wards Adrian V. Bonaventura gave him the option of selecting a
place of retreat, and he chose a little convent near Rieti. There
he is said to have lived for thirty-two years the life of an angel,
without abandoning his Joachitic beliefs. John XXI., who greatly
loved him, thought of making him a cardinal in 1277, but was
prevented by death. Nicholas III., who had presided at his trial,
a few years later offered him the cardinalate, so as to be able to
enjoy his advice, but he quietly answered, " I could give whole-
some counsel if there were any one to listen to me, but in the
Roman court there is little discussed but wars and triumphs, and
not the salvation of souls." In 1289, however, notwithstanding
his extreme age, he accepted from Nicholas IV. a mission to the
Greek Church, but he died at Camerino soon after setting out.
Buried there, he speedily shone in miracles ; he became the object
of a lasting cult, and in 1777 he was formally beatified, in spite
of the opposition arising from his alleged authorship of the Intro-
duction to the Everlasting Gospel.*
The faith of the Joachites was by no means broken by these
reverses. William of Saint Amour thought it necessary to return
to the charge with another bitter tract directed against them. He
shares their belief in the impending change, but declares that in
place of being the reign of love under the Holy Ghost, it will be
the reign of Antichrist, whom he identifies with the Friars. Per-
secution, he says, had put an end to the open defence of the pes-
tiferous doctrine of the Everlasting Gospel, but it still had many
believers in secret. The south of France was the headquarters of
the sect. Florent, Bishop of Acre, had been the official prosecutor
before the Commission of Anagni in 1255. He was rewarded with
the archbishopric of Aries in 1262, and in 1265 he held a provin-
* Wadding, ann. 1256, No. 6 ; arm. 1289, No. 26.— Hist. Tribulat. (loc. cit.
p. 285).— Salimbene Chron. pp. 131-33, 317.— Tocco, pp. 476-77.— P. Rodulphii
Hist. Seraph. Relig. Lib. I. fol. 117.— Affo, Lib. m. c. x.
26 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
cial synod with the object of condemning the Joachites. who were
still numerous in his province. An elaborate refutation of the
errors of the Everlasting Gospel was deemed necessary ; it was
deplored that many learned men still suffered themselves to be
misled by it, and that books containing it were written and eagerly
passed from hand to hand. The anathema was decreed against
this, but no measures of active persecution seem to have been
adopted, nor do we hear of any steps taken by the Inquisition to
suppress the heresy. As we shall see hereafter, the leaven long
remained in Languedoc and Provence, and gave a decided impress
to the Spiritual Franciscanism of those regions. It mattered little
that the hoped-for year 1260 came and passed away without the
fulfilment of the prophecy. Earnest believers can always find ex-
cuses for such errors in computation, and the period of the advent
of the Holy Ghost could be put off from time to time, so as always
to stimulate hope with the prospect of emancipation in the near
future."
Although the removal of John of Parma from the generalate
had been the victory of the Conventuals, the choice of Bonaven-
tura might well seem to give to the Spirituals assurance of con-
tinued supremacy. In his controversy with William of Saint
Amour he had taken the most advanced ground in denying that
Christ and the apostles held property of any kind, and in identify-
ing poverty with perfection. " Deep poverty is laudable ; this is
true of itself : therefore deeper poverty is more laudable, and the
deepest, the most laudable. But this is the poverty of him who
neither in private nor in common keeps anything for himself. . . .
To renounce all things, in private or in common, is Christian per-
fection, not only sufficient but abundant : it is the principal coun-
sel of evangelical perfection, its fundamental principle and sublime
foundation.'' Not only this, but he was deeply imbued with mys-
ticism and was the first to give authoritative expression to the
IUuminism which subsequently gave the Church so much trouble.
• Lib. de Antichristo P. i. c. x., xiii., xiv. (Martene Ampl. Coll. IX. 1273,
1313, 1325-35).— Thomae Aquinat. Opusc. contra Impugn. Rehg. c. xxiv. 5, 6.—
Concil. Arelatens. ann. 12G0 (1265) c. 1 (Harduin. VII. 509-12).— Fisquet, La
France Pontificate, M6tropole d'Aix, p. 577.— Kenan, p. 254.
INCREASING DISCORD. 27
His Mystica Theologia is in sharp contrast to the arid scholas-
tic theology of the day as represented by Thomas Aquinas. The
soul is brought face to face with God ; its sins are to be repented
of in the silent watches of the night, and it is to seek God through
its own efforts. It is not to look to others for aid or leader-
ship, but, depending on itself, strive for the vision of the Divine.
Through this Path of Purgation it ascends to the Path of Illumi-
nation, and is prepared for the reception of the Divine Radiance.
Finally it reaches the Third Path, which leads to union with the
Godhead and participation in Divine Wisdom. Molinos and Ma-
dame Guy on indulged in no more dangerous speculations ; and
the mystic tendencies of the Spirituals received a powerful stimu-
lus from such teachings.*
It was inevitable that the strife within the Order between
property and poverty should grow increasingly bitter. Questions
were constantly arising which showed the incompatibility of the
vows as laid down by St. Francis with the functions of an organ-
ization which had grown to be one of the leading factors of a
wealthy and worldly Church. In 1255 we find the sisters of the
monastery of St. Elizabeth complaining to Alexander IV. that
when property was given or bequeathed to them the ecclesiastical
authorities enforced on them the observance of the Rule, by com-
pelling them to part with it within a year by sale or gift, and the
pope graciously promised that no such custom should be enforced
in future. About the same time John of Parma complained that
when his friars were promoted to the episcopate they carried away
with them books and other things of which they had properly
only the use, being unable to own anything under peril of their
souls. Again Alexander graciously replied that friars, on promo-
tion, must deliver to the provincial everything which they had in
their hands. Such troubles must have been of almost daily occur-
rence, and it was inevitable that the increasing friction should
result in schism. When the blessed Gilio, the third disciple who
joined St. Francis, was taken to Assisi to view the splendid build-
ings erected in honor of the humble Francis, and was carried
through three magnificent churches, connected with a vast refec-
* S. Bonavent. de Paup. Christi Art. I. No. i., ii.— Ejusd. Mystic. Theol. cap. I.
Partic. 2; cap. n. Partic. 1, 2; Cap. in. Partic. 1.
28 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
tory, a spacious dormitory, and other offices and cloisters, adorned
with lofty arches and spacious portals, he kept silent until one of
his guides pressed him for an expression of admiration. " Breth-
ren," he then said, " there is nothing lacking except your wives."
This seemed somewhat irrelevant, till he explained that the vows
of poverty and chastity were equally binding, and now that one
was set aside the other might as well follow. Salimbene relates
that in the convent of Pisa he met Fra Boncampagno di Prato,
who, in place of the two new tunics per year distributed to each
of the brethren, would only accept one old one, and who declared
that he could scarce satisfy God for taking that one. Such exag-
gerated conscientious sensitiveness could not but be peculiarly
exasperating to the more worldly members.*
The Conventuals had lost no time in securing the results of
their victory over John of Parma. Scarce had his resignation been
secured, and before Bonaventura could arrive from Paris they
obtained from Alexander, February 20, 1257, a repetition of the
declaration of Innocent IV. which enabled the Order to handle
money and hold property through the transparent device of agents
and the Holy See. The disgust of the Puritan party was great,
and even the implicit reverence prescribed for the papacy could
not prevent ominous mutterings of disobedience, raising questions
as to the extent of the papal power to bind and to loose, which in
time were to ripen into open rebellion. The Eule had been pro-
claimed a revelation equal in authority to the gospel, and it might
well be asked whether even the successor of St. Peter could set it
aside. It was probably about this time that Bert hold of Katisbon,
the most celebrated Franciscan preacher of his day, in discoursing
to his brethren on the monastic state, boldly declared that the
vows of poverty, obedience, and chastity were so binding that
even the pope could not dispense for them. This, in fact, was
admitted on all sides as a truism. About 1290 the Dominican
Provincial of Germany, Hermann of Minden, in an encyclical, al-
ludes to it as a matter of course, but in little more than a quarter
of a century we shall see that such utterances were treated as her-
esy, and were sternly suppressed with the stake. +
# Wadding. Regest. Alex. PP. IV. No. 39-41; Annal. ann, 1262, No. 86.—
Salimbene, p. 122.
t Wadding, ann. 1256, No. 4; Regest. Alex. PP. IV. No. 66.— Bertboldi a
BONAVENTURA'S EFFORTS. 29
Bonaventura, as we have seen, honestly sought to restrain the
growing laxity of the Order. Before leaving Paris he addressed,
April 23, 1257, an encyclical letter to the provincials, calling their
attention to the prevalent vices of the brethren and the contempt
to which they exposed the whole Order. Again, some ten years
later, at the instance of Clement IV., he issued another similar
epistle, in which he strongly expressed his horror at the neglect of
the Rule shown in the shameless greed of so many members, the
importunate striving for gain, the ceaseless litigation caused by
their grasping after legacies and burials, and the splendor and lux-
ury of their buildings. The provincials were instructed to put
an end to these disorders by penance, imprisonment, or expulsion ;
but however earnest in his zeal Bonaventura may have been, and
however self-denying in his own life, he lacked the fiery energy
which enabled John of Parma to give effect to his convictions.
How utter was the prevailing degeneracy is seen in the complaint
presented in 1265 to Clement IV., that in many places the eccle-
siastical authorities held that the friars, being dead to the world,
were incapable of inheritance. Relief was prayed from this, and
Clement issued a bull declaring them competent to inherit and
free to hold their inheritances, or to sell them, and to use the prop-
erty or its price as might to them seem best.*
The question of poverty evidently was one incapable of per-
Ratispona Sermones, Monachii, 1882, p. 68. — H. Denifle, Archiv fiir Litt.- u.
Kirchengeschichte, 1886, p. 649.
To the true Franciscan the Rule and the gospel were one and the same. Ac-
cording to Thomas of Celano, "II perfetto amatore dell1 osservanza del santo
vangelio e della professione della nostra regola, che non e altro che perfetta
osservanza del vangelio, questo [Francesco] ardentissimamente amava, e quelli
che sono e saranno veri amatori, dono a essi singular benedizione. Veramente,
dicea, questa nostra professione a quelli che la seguitano, esser libro di vita,
speranza di salute, arra di gloria, melodia del vangelio, via di croce, stato di
perfezione, chiave di paradiso, e patto di eterna pace." — Amoni, Legenda S. Fran-
cisci, App. c. xxix.
* S. Bonavent, Opp. I. 485-6 (Ed. 1584).— Wadding, ann. 1257, No. 9; Re-
gest. Clem. PP. IV. No. I.
Pierre Jean Olivi states that he himself heard Bonaventura declare in a chap-
ter held in Paris that he would, at any moment, submit to be ground to powder
if it would bring the Order back to the condition designed by St. Francis.—
Franz Ehrlc, Archiv fiir L. u. K. 1887, p. 517.
30 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
manent and satisfactory settlement. Dissension in the Order
could not be healed. In vain Gregory X., about 1275, was ap-
pealed to, and decided that the injunction of the Kule against the
possession of property, individually or in common, was to be strict-
ly observed. The worldly party continued to point out the in-
compatibility of this with the necessities of human nature ; they
declared it to be a tempting of God and a suicide of the individ-
ual ; the quarrel continually grew more bitterly envenomed, and
in 1279 Nicholas III. undertook to settle it with a formal declara-
tion which should forever close the mouths of all cavillers. For
two months he secretly labored at it in consultation with the two
Franciscan cardinals, Palestrina and Albano, the general, Bona-
grazia, and some of the provincials. Then it was submitted to a
commission in which was Benedetto Caietano, afterwards Boni-
face VIII. Finally it was read and adopted in full consistory,
and it was included, twenty years later, in the additions to the
canon law compiled and published by order of Boniface. No ut-
terance of the Holy See could have more careful consideration
and more solemn authority than the bull known as Emit qui semi-
nat, which was thus ushered into the world, and which subsequent-
ly became the subject of such deadly controversy.*
It declares the Franciscan Kule to be the inspiration of the
Holy Ghost through St. Francis. The renunciation of property,
not only individual but in common, is meritorious and holy. Such
absolute renunciation of possession had been practised by Christ
and the apostles, and had been taught by them to their disciples ;
it is not only meritorious and perfect, but lawful and possible, for
there is a distinction between use, which is permitted, and owner-
ship, which is forbidden. Following the example of Innocent IV.
and Alexander IV., the proprietorship of all that the Franciscans
use is declared to be vested, now and hereafter, in the Koman
Church and pontiff, which concede to the friars the usufruct
thereof. The prohibition to receive and handle money is to be
enforced, and borrowing is especially deprecated ; but, when neces-
sity obliges, this may be effected through third parties, although
the brethren must abstain from handling the money or adminis-
tering or expending it. As for legacies, they must not be left
• Li j. v. Sexto xii. 3.— Wadding, ann. 1279, No. 11.
FRUITLESS SETTLEMENTS. 31
directly to the friars, but only for their use ; and minute regulations
are drawn up for exchanging or selling books and utensils. The
bull concludes with instructions that it is to be read and taught
in the schools, but no one, under pain of excommunication and
loss of office and benefice, shall do anything but expound it liter-
ally— it is not to be glossed or commented upon, or discussed, or
explained away. All doubts and questions shall be submitted di-
rectly to the Holy See, and any one disputing or commenting on
the Franciscan Rule or the definitions of the bull shall undergo
excommunication, removable only by the pope.
Had the question been capable of permanent settlement in this
sense, this solemn utterance would have put an end to further
trouble. Unluckily, human nature did not cease to be human
nature, with its passions and necessities, on crossing the threshold
of a Franciscan convent. Unluckily, papal constitutions were as
cobwebs when they sought to control the ineradicable vices and
weakness of man. Unluckily, moreover, there were consciences
too sensitive to be satisfied with fine-drawn distinctions and sub-
tleties ingeniously devised to evade the truth. Yet the bull Exiit
qui seminat for a while relieved the papacy from further discus-
sion, although it could not quiet the intestine dissensions of the
Order. There was still a body of recalcitrants, not numerous,
it is true, but eminent for the piety and virtue of its members,
which could not be reconciled by these subterfuges. These re-
calcitrants gradually formed themselves into two distinct bodies,
one in Italy, and the other in southern France. At first there is
little to distinguish them apart, and for a long while they acted
in unison, but there gradually arose a divergence between them,
which in the end became decisively marked, owing to the greater
influence exercised in Languedoc and Provence by the traditions
of Joachim and the Everlasting Gospel.
We have seen how the thirst for ascetic poverty, coupled in
many cases, doubtless, with the desire to escape from the sordid
cares of daily life, led thousands to embrace a career of wander-
ing mendicancy. Sarabites and circumcelliones — vagrant monks,
subjected to no rule — had been the curse of the Church ever since
the invention of cenobitism ; and the exaltation of poverty in the
thirteenth century had given a new impulse to the crowds who
32 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
preferred the idleness of the road or of the hermitage to the re-
straints and labor of civilized existence. It was in vain that the
Lateran Council had prohibited the formation of new and unau-
thorized Orders. The splendid success of the Mendicants had
proved too alluring, and others were formed on the same basis,
without the requisite preliminary of the papal approval. The
multitudes of holy beggars were becoming a serious nuisance, op-
pressive to the people and disgraceful to the Church. When Greg-
orv X. summoned the General Council of Lyons, in 1274. this was
one of the evils to be remedied. The Lateran canon prohibiting
the formation of unauthorized Orders was renewed. Gregory pro-
posed to suppress all the congregations of hermits, but, at the in-
stance of Cardinal Eichard, the Carmelites and Augustinians were
allowed to exist on sufferance until further order, while the au-
dacity of other associations, not as yet approved, was condemned,
especially that of the mendicants, whose multitude was declared
to exceed all bounds. Such mendicant Orders as had been con-
firmed since the Council of Lateran were permitted to continue,
but they were instructed to admit no new members, to acquire no
new houses, and not to sell what they possessed without special
license from the Holy See. Evidently it was felt that the time
had come for decisive measures to check the tide of saintly men-
dicancy."-
Some vague and incorrect rumors of this legislation penetrat-
ing to Italy, led to an explosion which started one of the most
extraordinary series of persecutions which the history of human
perversity affords. On the one hand there is the marvellous con-
stancy which endured lifelong martyrdom for an idea almost un-
intelligible to the modern mind ; on the other there is the seem-
ingly causeless ferocity, which appears to persecute for the mere
pleasure of persecution, only to be explained by the bitterness of
the feuds existing within the Order, and the savage determination
to enforce submission at every cost.
It was reported that the Council of Lyons had decreed that
the Mendicants could hold property. Most of the brethren ac-
quiesced readily enough, but those who regarded the Rule as divine
revelation, not to be tampered with by any earthly authority, de-
* Concil. Lugdunens. II. c. 23 (Harduiu. VII. 715).— Salimbene, pp. 110-11.
PERSECUTION COMMENCED. 33
clarecl that it would be apostasy, and a thing not to be admitted un-
der any circumstances. Several disputations were held which only
confirmed each side in its views. One point which gave rise to
peculiar animosity was the refusal of the Spirituals to take their
turns in the daily rounds in quest of moneyed alms, which had
grown to be the custom in most places ; and it is easy to imagine
the bitter antagonism to which this disobedience must have led.
It shows how strained were the relations between the factions
that proceedings for heresy were forthwith commenced against
these zealots. The rumor proved false, the excitement died away,
and the prosecutions were allowed to slumber for a few years,
when they were revived through fear that these extreme opinions,
if left unpunished, might win over the majority. Liberato da
Macerata, Angelo da Cingoli (il Clareno), Traymondo, Tommaso da
Tollentino, and one or two others whose names have not reached
us were the obdurate ones who would make no concession, even
in theory. Angelo, to whom we owe an account of the matter,
declared that they were ready to render implicit obedience, that
no offence was proved against them, but that nevertheless they
were condemned, as schismatics and heretics, to perpetual impris-
onment in chains. The sentence was inhumanly harsh. They
were to be deprived of the sacraments, even upon the death-bed,
thus killing soul as well as body ; during life no one was to speak
with them, not even the jailer who brought the daily pittance of
bread and water to their cells, and examined their fetters to see
that they were attempting no escape. Asa warning, moreover, the
sentence was ordered to be read weekly in all the chapters, and
no one was to presume to criticise it as unjust. This was no idle
threat, for when Friar Tommaso da Casteldemilio heard it read and
said it was displeasing to God, he was cast into a similar prison,
where he rotted to death in a few months. The fierce spirits in
control of the Order were evidently determined that at least the
vow of obedience should be maintained.*
* Angel. Clarinens. Epist. Excusat. (Archiv fur Litt.- u. Kirchengeschichte,
1885, pp. 523-4).— Histor. Tribulation. (Ibid. 1886, pp. 302-4).— Ubertini Re-
sponsio (Ibid. 1887, p. 68). — Cf. Rodulphii Hist. Seraph. Relig. Lib. 11. fol.
180.
For the first time the development and history of the Spiritual Franciscans
can now be traced with some accuracy, thanks to Franz Ehrle, S. J., who has
III.— 3
34 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
The prisoners seem to have lain in jail until after the election
to the generalate of Raymond Gaufridi, at Easter, 1289. Visit-
ing the Hark of Ancona, where they were incarcerated, he inves-
tigated the case, blamed severely the perpetrators of the injustice,
and set the martyrs free in 1290. The Order had been growing
more lax in its observance than ever, in spite of the bull Exiit qui
seminat. Matteo d'Acquasparta, who was general from 1287 to
1289, was easy and kindly, well-intentioned but given to self -in-
dulgence, and by no means inclined to the effort requisite to en-
force the Rule. Respect for it, indeed, was daily diminishing.
Coffers were placed in the churches to receive offerings ; bargains
were made as to the price of masses and for the absolution of sin-
ners ; boys were stationed at the church-doors to sell wax tapers
in honor of saints ; the Friars habitually begged money in the
streets, accompanied by boys to receive and carry it ; the sepulture
of the rich was eagerly sought for, leading to disgraceful quarrels
with the heirs and with the secular clergy. Everywhere there
was self-seeking and desire for the enjoyment of an idle and luxu-
rious life. It is true that lapses of the flesh were still rigidly pun-
ished, but these cases were sufficiently frequent to show that ample
cause for scandal arose from the forbidden familiarity with women
which the brethren permitted themselves. So utter was the gen-
eral demoralization that Xicholas, the Provincial of France, even
dared to write a tract calling in question the bull Exiit qui semi-
nat and its exposition of the Rule. As this was in direct contra-
vention of the bull itself, Acquasparta felt compelled to condemn
the work and to punish :ts author and his supporters, but the evil
continued to work. In the Mark of Ancona and in some other
places the reaction against asceticism was so strong that the Testa-
ment of the revered Francis was officially ordered to be burned.
It was the main bulwark of the Spirituals against relaxation of
the Rule, and in one instance it was actually burned on the head
of a friar, X. de Recanate, who presumably had made himself ob-
noxious by insisting on its authority.*
printed the most important documents relating to this schism in the Order, elu-
cidated with all the resources of exact research. My numerous references to his
papers show the extent of my indebtedness to his labors.
* Histor. Tribulat. (loc. cit. 1886, p. 305). — Ubertioi Responsio (Ibid. 1887,
pp. 69, 7?).— Articuli Transgressionurn (Ibid. 1887, pp. 105-7).— Wadding, ann.
PROTECTED BY CELESTIN V. 35
Raymond Gaufridi was earnestly desirous of restoring disci-
pline, but the relaxation of the Order had grown past curing. His
release of the Spirituals at Ancona caused much murmuring ; he
was ridiculed as a patron of fantastic and superstitious men, and
conspiracies were set on foot which never ceased till his removal
was effected in 1295. It was perhaps to conjure these attempts that
he sent Liberato, Angelo, Tommaso, and two kindred spirits named
Marco and Piero to Armenia, where they induced King Haito II.
to enter the Franciscan Order, and won from him the warmest
eulogies. Even in the East, however, the hatred of their fellow-
missionaries was so earnest and so demonstrative that they were
forced to return in 1293. On their arrival in Italy the provincial,
Monaldo, refused to receive them or to allow them to remain until
they could communicate with Raymond, declaring that he would
rather entertain fornicators.*
The unreasoning wrath which insisted on these votaries of pov-
erty violating their convictions received a check when, in 1294, the
choice of the exhausted conclave fell by chance on the hermit
Pier Morrone, who suddenly found his mountain burrow trans-
formed into the papal palace. Celestin V. preserved in St. Peter's
chair the predilection for solitude and maceration which had led
him to the life of the anchorite. To him Raymond referred the
Spirituals, whom he seemed unable to protect. Celestin listened
to them kindly and invited them to enter his special Order — the
Celestinian Benedictines — but they explained to him the difference
of their vows, and how their brethren detested the observance of
the Rule. Then in public audience he ordered them to observe
strictly the Rule and Testament of Francis ; he released them from
obedience to all except himself and to Liberato, whom he made
their chief; Cardinal Napoleone Orsini was declared their pro-
tector, and the abbot of the Celestinians was ordered to provide
1289, No. 22-3.— Ubertini Declaratio (Archiv, 1887, pp. 168-9).— Dante contrasts
Acquasparta with Ubertino da Casale, of whom we shall see more presently —
" Ma non sia da Casal ne d'Acquasparta
La onde vegnon tali alia Scrittura
Ch' uno la fugge e Taltro la coarta." — (Paradiso xil).
# Hist. Tribulat. (loc. cit, 1886, pp. 306-8).— Angel. Clarinens. Epist. (Ibid.
1885, pp. 524-5).— Wadding, ann. 1292, No. 14.
35 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
them with hermitages. Thus they were fairly out of the Order;
thev were not even to call themselves Minorites or Franciscans,
and it might be supposed that their brethren would be as glad to
get rid of them and their assumption of superior sanctity as they
were to escape from oppression.*
Yet the hatred provoked by the quarrel was too deep and bit-
ter to spare its victims, and the breathing-space which they en-
joyed was short. Celestin's pontificate came to an abrupt termi-
nation. Utterly unfitted for his position, speedily made the tool of
designing men, and growing weary of the load which he felt him-
self unable to endure, after less than six months he was persuaded
to abdicate, in December, 1294, and was promptly thrown into pris-
on by his successor, Boniface Till., for fear that he might be led
to reconsider an abdication the legality of which might be ques-
tioned. All of Celestin's acts and grants were forthwith annulled,
and so complete was the obliteration of everything that he had
done, that even the appointment of a notary is found to require
confirmation and a fresh commission. Boniface's contempt for the
unworldly enthusiasm of asceticism did not lead him to make any
exception in favor of the Spirituals. To him the Franciscan Or-
der was merely an instrument for the furtherance of his ambitious
schemes, and its worldliness was rather to be stimulated than re-
pressed. Though he placed in his Sixth Book of Decretals the
bull Exiit qui seminat, his practical exposition of its provisions is
seen in two bulls issued July 17, 1200, by one of which he as-
signs to the Franciscans of Paris one thousand marks, to be taken
from the legacies for pious uses, and by the other he converts to
them a legacy of three hundred livres bequeathed by Ada, lady of
Pernes, for the benefit of the Holy Land. Under such auspices
the degradation of the Order could not but be rapid. Before his
first year was out, Boniface had determined upon the removal of
the general, Kaymond. October 29, 1295, he offered the latter the
bishopric of Pa via, and on his protesting that he had not strength
for the burden, Boniface said that he could not be fit for the
heavier load of the generalate, of which he relieved him on the
spot. ^Ye can understand the insolence which led a party of the
* Angel. Clarin. Epist. (cp. cit. 1885, p. 526) ; Hist. Tribulationum (lb. 188G,
pp. 308-9).
BONIFACE VIII. 37
Conventual faction to visit Celestin in his prison and taunt and
insult him for the favor which he had shown to the Spirituals. A
prosecution for heresy which Boniface ordered, in March, 1295,
against Fra Pagano di Pietra-Santa was doubtless instigated by
the same spirit.*
More than this. To Boniface's worldly, practical mind the
hordes of wandering mendicants, subjected to no authority, were an
intolerable nuisance, whether it arose from ill-regulated asceticism
or idle vagabondage. The decree of the Council of Lyons had
failed to suppress the evil, and, in 1496 and 1497, Boniface issued
instructions to all bishops to compel such wanderers or hermits,
popularly known as Bizochi, either to lay aside their fictitious re-
ligious habits and give up their mode of life, or to betake themselves
to some authorized Order. The inquisitors were instructed to de-
nounce to the bishops all suspected persons, and if the prelates
were remiss, to report them to the Holy See. One remarkable
clause gives special authority to the inquisitors to prosecute sucL
of these Bizochi as may be members of their own Orders, thus
showing that there was no heresy involved, as otherwise the in-
quisitors would have required no additional powers. f
The following year Boniface proceeded to more active meas-
ures. He ordered the Franciscan, Matteo da Chieti, Inquisitor of
Assisi, to visit personally the mountains of the Abruzzi and Mark
of Ancona and to drive from their lurking places the apostates
from various religious Orders and the Bizochi who infested those
regions. His previous steps had probably been ineffective, and
possibly also he may have been moved to more decisive action by
the rebellious attitude of the Spirituals and proscribed mendicants.
Not only did they question the papal authority, but they were be-
ginning to argue that the papacy itself was vacant. So far from
being content with the bull Exiit qui seminat, they held that its
author, Nicholas III., had been deprived by God of the papal func-
tions, and consequently that he had had no legitimate successors.
Thereafter there had been no true ordinations of priest and prel-
ate, and the real Church consisted in themselves alone. To rem-
* Hist. Tribulat. (loc. cit. 1886, pp. 309-10).— Faucon et Thomas, Registres de
Boniface VIII. No. 37, 1232, 1233, 1292, 1825.— Wadding, ann. 1295, No. 14.
t Franz Ehrle, Archiv fur L. u. K. 1886, pp. 157-8.
38 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
edy this, Frere Matthieu de Bodici came from Provence, bringing
with him the books of Pierre Jean Olivi, and in the Church of St.
Peter in Home he was elected pope by five Spirituals and thirteen
women. Boniface promptly put the Inquisition on their track,
but they fled to Sicily, which, as we shall see, subsequently be-
came the headquarters of the sect.*
Friar Jordan, to whom we are indebted for these details, as-
sumes that Liberato and his associates were concerned in this
movement. The dates and order of events are hopelessly con-
fused, but it would rather seem that the section of the Spirituals
represented by Liberato kept themselves aloof from all such revo-
lutionary projects. Their sufferings were real and prolonged, but
had they been guilty of participating in the election of an anti-
pope they would have had but the choice between perpetual im-
prisonment and the stake. They were accused of holding that
Boniface was not a lawful pope, that the authority of the Church
was vested in themselves alone, and that the Greek Church was
preferable to the Latin — in other words of Joachitism — but Angelo
declares emphatically that all this was untrue, and his constancy
of endurance during fift}T years of persecution and suffering en-
titles his assertion to respect. He relates that after their authori-
zation by Celestin Y. they lived as hermits in accordance with the
papal concession, sojourning as paupers and strangers wherever
they could find a place of retreat, and strictly abstaining from
preaching and hearing confessions, except when ordered to do so
by bishops to whom they owed obedience. Even before the resig-
nation of Celestin, the Franciscan authorities, irritated at the es-
cape of their victims, disregarded the papal authority and endeav-
ored with an armed force to capture them. Celestin himself
seems to have given them warning of this, and the zealots, recog-
nizing that there was no peace for them in Italy, resolved to ex-
patriate themselves and seek some remote spot where they could
gratify their ascetic longings and worship God without human
* Raynald. aim. 1297, No. oo.— Jordani Chron. cap. 236, Partic. 3 (Muratori,
Antiq XL 766).
So far was Pierre Jean Olivi from participating in these rebellious movements
that be wrote a tract to prove the legality of Celestin's abdication and Boniface's
succession (Franz Ehrle, Archiv f. L. u. K. 1887, p. 525).
PERSECUTED BY THE INQUISITION. 39
interference. They crossed the Adriatic and settled on a desert
island off the Achaian coast. Here, lost to view, they for two years
enjoyed the only period of peace in their agitated lives ; but at
length news of their place of retreat reached home, and forthwith
letters were despatched to the nobles and bishops of the mainland
accusing them of being Cathari, while Boniface was informed that
they did not regard him as pope, but held themselves to be the
only true Church. In 1299 he commissioned Peter, Patriarch of
Constantinople, to try them, when they were condemned without
a hearing, and he ordered Charles II. of Naples, who was overlord
of the Morea, to have them expelled, an order which Charles trans-
mitted to Isabelle de Villehardouin, Princess of Achaia. Mean-
while the local authorities had recognized the falsity of the accu-
sations, for the refugees celebrated mass daily and prayed for
Boniface as pope, and were willing to eat meat, but this did not
relieve them from surveillance and annoyance, one of their princi-
pal persecutors being a certain Geronimo, who came to them with
some books of Olivi's, and whom they were forced to eject for im-
morality, after which he turned accuser and was rewarded with
the episcopate.*
The pressure became too strong, and the little community grad-
ually broke up. An intention to accompany Fra Giovanni da
Monte on a mission to Tartary had to be abandoned on account of
the excommunication consequent upon the sentence uttered by
the Patriarch of Constantinople. Liberato sent two brethren to
appeal to Boniface, and then two more, but they were all seized
and prevented from reaching him. Then Liberato himself de-
parted secretly and reached Perugia, but the sudden death of
Boniface (October 11, 1303) frustrated his object. The rest re-
turned at various times, Angelo being the last to reach Italy, in
1305. He found his brethren in evil plight. They had been cited
by the Dominican inquisitor, Tommaso di A versa, and had obedient-
ly presented themselves. At first the result was favorable. After
an examination lasting several days, Tommaso pronounced them
* Angel. Clarin. Epist. (Archivfur Litt.- u. Kirchengeschichte, 1885, pp. 522-3,
527-9) .—Hist. Tribulat. (Ibid. 1886, pp. 314-18).— Franz Ehrle (Ibid. 1886, p. 335.
Franz Ehrle identifies the refuge of the Spirituals with the island of Trixonia
in the Gulf of Corinth (Ibid. 1886, pp. 313-14).
4ii THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
orthodox, and dismissed them, saying publicly, " Fra Liberato, I
swear by Him who created me that never the flesh of a poor man
could be sold for such a price as I could get for yours. Your
brethren would drink your blood if they could." He even con-
ducted them in safety back to their hermitages, and when the rage
of the Conventuals was found to be unappeasable he gave them
the advice that they should leave the kingdom of Xaples that night
and travel by hidden ways to the pope ; if they could bring letters
from the latter, or from a cardinal, he would defend them as long
as he held the office. The advice was taken ; Liberato left Xaples
that night, but fell sick on the road and died after a lingering ill-
ness of two years. Meanwhile, as we shall see hereafter, the ex-
ploits of Dolcino in Lombardy were exciting general terror, which
rendered all irregular fraternities the object of suspicion and dread.
The Conventuals took advantage of this and incited Fra Tommaso
to summon before him all who wore unauthorized religious habits.
The Spirituals were cited again, to the number of forty-two. and
this time they did not escape so easily. They were condemned as
heretics, and when Andrea da Segna. under whose protection they
had lived, interposed in their favor, Tommaso carried them to Tri-
vento. where they were tortured for five days. This excited the
compassion of the bishop and nobles of the town, so they were
transferred to Castro Mainardo, a solitary spot, where for five
months they were afflicted with the sharpest torments. Two of
the vouno-er brethren yielded and accused themselves and their
comrades, but revoked when released. Some of them died, and
finall v the survivors were ordered to be scourged naked through
the streets of Naples and were banished the kingdom, although
no specific heresy was alleged against them in the sentence.
Through all this the resolution of the little band never faltered.
Convinced that they alone were on the path of salvation, they
would not be forced back into the Order. On the death of Liber-
ato. Angelo was chosen as their leader, and amid persecution and
obloquy they formed a congregation in the Mark of Ancona,
known as the Clareni. from the surname of their chief, and under
the protection of the cardinal, Xapoleone OrsinL*
* Angel. Clarin. Epist. (op. cit. 1885, 529-31).— Hist. Tribulat. (lb. 1886, 320-
6).— Wadding, ann. 1302, No. 8; 1307, No. 2-±.
JACOPONE DA TODI. 41
This group had not been by any means alone in opposing the
laxity of the Conventuals, although it was the only one which suc-
ceeded in throwing off the yoke of its opponents. The Spirituals
were numerous in the Order, but the policy of Boniface VIII. led
him to support the efforts of the Conventuals to keep them in sub-
jection. Jacopone da Todi, the author of the Stabat Mater, was
perhaps the most prominent of these, and his savage verses directed
against the pope did not tend to harmonize the troubles. After
the capture of Palestrina, in 1298, Boniface threw him into a foul
dungeon, where he solaced his captivity with canticles full of the
mystic ardor of divine love. It is related that Boniface once, pass-
ing the grating of his cell, jeeringly called to him, " Jacopo, when
will you get out V and was promptly answered, " When you come
in." In a sense the prophecy proved true, for one of the first acts
of Benedict XI., in December, 1303, was to release Jacopone from
both prison and excommunication.*
Fra Corrado da Offida was another prominent member of the
Spiritual group. He had been a friend of John of Parma ; for fifty-
five years he wore but a single gown, patched and repatched as
necessity required, and this with his rope girdle constituted his
sole worldly possessions. In the mystic exaltation which charac-
terized the sect he had frequent visions and ecstasies, in which he
was lifted from the ground after the fashion of the saints. When
Liberato and his companions were in their Achaian refuge he
designed joining them with Jacopo de' Monti and others, but the
execution of the project was in some way prevented. f
* Cantu, Eretici d' Italia, 1. 129.— Comba, La Riforma in Italia, I. 314.
A specimen of Jacopone's attacks on Boniface will show the temper of the
times —
"Ponesti la tua lingua O pessiina avarizia
Contra religione Sete induplicata,
A dir blasfemia Bever tanta pecunia
Senza niun cagione. E non esser saziata !"
(Comba, op. cit. 312.)
There is doubtless foundation for the story related by Savonarola in a sermon,
that Jacopone was once brought into the consistory of cardinals and requested to
preach, when he solemnly repeated thrice, "I wonder that in consequence of
your sins the earth does not open and swallow you."— Villari, Fra Savonarola,
II. Ed. T. II. p. 3.
t Hist. Tribulat. (loc. cit. pp. 311-13).
42 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
Such men, filled with the profoundest conviction of their holy
calling, were not to be controlled by either kindness or severity.
It was in vain that the general, Giovanni di Murro, at the chapter
of 1302, held in Genoa, issued a precept deploring the abandonment,
by the Order, of holy poverty, as shown by the possession of lands
and farms and vineyards, and the assumption by friars of duties
which involved them in worldly cares and strife and litigation.
He ordered the sale of all property, and forbade the members of
the Order from appearing in any court. Yet while he was thus
rigid as to the ownership of property, he was lax as to its use, and
condemned as pernicious the doctrine that the vow of poverty in-
volved restriction in its enjoyment. He was, moreover, resolved on
extinguishing the schism in the Order, and his influence with Boni-
face was one of the impelling causes of the continued persecution
of the Spirituals. They stubbornly rejected all attempts at recon-
ciliation, and placed a true estimate on these efforts of reform.
Before the year was out Giovanni was created Cardinal Bishop of
Porto, and was allowed to govern the Order through a vicar ; the
reforms were partially enforced in some provinces for a short time ;
then they fell into desuetude, and matters went on as before.*
In France, where the influence of Joachim and the Everlasting
Gospel was much more lasting and pronounced than in Italy, the
career of the Spirituals revolves around one of the most remark-
able personages of the period — Pierre Jean Olivi. Born in 1247,
he was placed in the Franciscan Order at the age of twelve, and
was trained in the University of Paris, where he obtained the
baccalaureate. His grave demeanor, seasoned with a lively wit, his
irreproachable morals, his fervid eloquence, and the extent of his
learning won for him universal respect, while his piety, gentleness,
humility, and zeal for holy poverty gained for him a reputation
for sanctity which assigned to him the gift of prophecy. That
such a man should attach himself to the Spirituals was a matter of
course, and equally so was the enmity which he excited by un-
sparing reproof of the laxity of observance into which the Order
had declined. In his voluminous writings he taught that absolute
* Wadding, aim. 1302, No. 1-3, 7 ; ann. 1310, No. 9— Franz Ehrle (Arcbiv fiLr
Litt.- U.K. 1886, p. 385).
PIERRE JEAN OLIVI. 43
poverty is the source of all the virtues and of a saintly life ; that
the Rule prohibited all proprietorship, whether individual or in com-
mon, and that the vow bound the members to the most sparing use
of all necessaries, the meanest garments, the absence of shoes, etc.,
while the pope had no power to dispense or absolve, and much less
to order anything contrary to the Rule. The convent of Beziers,
to which he belonged, became the centre of the Spiritual sect, and
the devotion which he excited was shared by the population at
large, as well as by his brethren. The temper of the man was
shown when he underwent his first rebuke. In 1278 some writings
of his in praise of the Virgin were considered to trench too close-
ly on Mariolatry. The Order had not yet committed itself to
this, and complaint was made to the general, Geronimo d'Ascoli,
afterwards Nicholas IV., who read the tracts and condemned him
to burn them with his own hands. Olivi at once obeyed without
any sign of perturbation, and when his wondering brethren asked
how he could endure such mortification so tranquilly, he replied
that he had performed the sacrifice with a thoroughly placid mind ;
he had not felt more pleasure in writing the tracts than in burn-
ing them at the command of his superior, and the loss was noth-
ing, for if necessary he could easily write them again in better
shape. A man so self-centred and imperturbable could not fail to
impress his convictions on those who surrounded him.*
What his convictions really were is a problem not easily solved
at the present day. The fierce antagonisms which he excited by
his fiery onslaughts on individuals as well as on the general laxity
of the Order at large, caused his later years to be passed in a series
of investigations for heresy. At the general chapter of Strass-
burg, in 1282, his writings were ordered to be examined. In 1283
Bonagrazia di S. Giovanni, the general, came to France, collected
and placed them all in the hands of seven of the leading members of
the Order, who found in them propositions which they variously
* Wadding, aim. 1278, No. 27-8.— Franz Ehrle, Archiv f. L. u. K. 1887, pp.
505-11, 528-9.
When Geronimo d'Ascoli attained the papacy he was urged to prosecute Olivi,
but refused, expressing the highest consideration for his talents and piety, and
declaring that his rebuke had been merely intended as a warning (Hist. Trib.
loc. cit. 1886, p. 289).
44 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
characterized as false, heretical, presumptuous, and dangerous, and
ordered the tracts containing them to be surrendered by all pos-
sessing them. Olivi subscribed to the judgment in 1284, although
he complained that he had not been permitted to appear in person
before his judges and explain the censured passages, to which
distorted meanings had been applied. With some difficulty he
procured copies of his inculpated writings and proceeded to justi-
fy himself. Still the circle of his disciples continued to increase ;
incapable of the self-restraint of their master, and secretly imbued
with Joachitic doctrines, they were not content with the quiet
propagation of their principles, but excited tumults and seditions.
Olivi was held responsible. The chapter held at Milan in 1285
elected as general minister Arlotto di Prato, one of the seven who
had condemned him, and issued a decree ordering a strict perqui-
sition and seizure of his writings. The new general, moreover,
summoned him to Paris for another inquisition into his faith,
of which the promoters were two of the members of the previous
commission, Eichard Middleton and Giovanni di Murro, the future
general. The matter was prolonged until 1286, when Arlotto
died, and nothing was done. Matteo d'Acquasparta vouched for
his orthodoxy in appointing him teacher in the general school of
the Order at Florence. Eaymond Gaufridi, who succeeded Matteo
d'Acquasparta in 1290, was a friend and admirer of Olivi, but could
not prevent fresh proceedings, though he appointed him teacher
at Montpellier. Excitement in Languedoc had reached a point
which led Nicholas IV., in 1290, to order Eaymond to suppress
the disturbers of the peace. He commissioned Bertrand de Cigo-
tier, Inquisitor of the Comtat Yenaissin, to investigate and report,
in order that the matter might be brought before the next gen-
eral chapter, to be held in Paris. In 1292, accordingly, Olivi ap-
peared before the chapter, professed his acceptance of the bull
Exiit qui se?ninat, asserted that he had never intentionally taught
or written otherwise, and revoked and abjured anything that he
might inadvertently have said in contradiction of it. He was dis-
missed in peace, but twenty-nine of his zealous and headstrong
followers, whom Bertrand de Cigotier had found guilty, were duly
punished. His few remaining years seem to have passed in com-
parative peace. Two letters written in 1295, one to Corrado da
Offida and the other to the sons of Charles II. of Xaples, then
PIERRE JEAN OLIVI. 45
held as hostages in Catalonia, who had asked him to visit them,
show that he was held in high esteem, that he desired to curb the
fanatic zeal of the more advanced Spirituals, and that he could not
restrain himself from apocalyptic speculation. On his deathbed,
in 1298, he uttered a confession of faith in which he professed abso-
lute submission to the Roman Church and to Boniface as its head.
He also submitted all his works to the Holy See, and made a
declaration of principles as to the matters in dispute within the
Order, which contained nothing that Bonaventura would not have
signed, or Nicholas III. would have impugned as contrary to the
bull Exiit, although it sharply rebuked the money -getting prac-
tices and relaxation of the Order. *
He was honorably buried at Narbonne, and then the contro-
versy over his memory became more lively than ever, rendering it
almost impossible to determine his responsibility for the opinions ,
which were ascribed to him by both friends and foes. That his
bones became the object of assiduous cult, in spite of repeated
prohibitions, that innumerable miracles were worked at his tomb,
that crowds of pilgrims flocked to it, that his feast-day became one
of the great solemnities of the year, and that he was regarded as
one of the most efficient saints in the calendar, only shows the
popular estimate of his virtues and the zeal of those who regarded
* Wadding, ann. 1282, No. 2 ; ann. 1283, No. 1 ; arm. 1285, No. 5 ; arm. 1290,
No. 11 ; ann. 1292, No. 13 ; ann. 1297, No. 33-4.— Chron. Glassberger ann. 1283.—
Hist. Tribulat. (loc. cit. pp. 294-5).— Franz Ehrle, Archiv, 1886, pp. 383, 389 ; 1887,
pp. 417-27,429,433,438, 534.— Raym. de Fronciacho (Archiv, 1887, p. 15).
Olivi's death is commonly assigned to 1297, but the Transitus Sancti Patris,
which was one of the books most in vogue among his disciples, states that it
occurred on Friday, March 14, 1297 (Bernard. Guidon. Practica P. v.); Friday
fell on March 14 in 1298, and the common habit of commencing the year with
Easter explains the substitution of 1297 for 1298.
His bones are generally said to have been dug up and burned a few months
after interment, by order of the general, Giovanni di Murro (Tocco, op. cit. p.
503). Wadding, indeed, asserts that they were twice exhumed (ann. 1297, No.
36). Eymerich mentions a tradition that they were carried to Avignon and thrown
by night into the Rhone (Eymerici Direct. Inquis. p. 313). The cult of which
they were the object shows that this could not have been the case, and Bernard
Gui, the best possible authority, in commenting on the Transitus states that
they were abstracted in 1318 and hidden no one knows where— doubtless by dis-
ciples to prevent the impending profanation of exhumation.
46 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
themselves as his disciples. Certain it is that the Council of Yienne,
in 1312, treated his memory with great gentleness. While it con-
demned with merciless severity the mystic extravagances of the
Brethren of the Free Spirit, it found only four errors to note in
the voluminous writings of Olivi — errors of merely speculative in-
terest, such as are frequent among the schoolmen of the period —
and these it pointed out without attributing them to him or even
mentioning: his name. These his immediate followers denied his
holding, although eventually one of them, curiously enough, be-
came a sort of shibboleth among the Olivists. It was that Christ
was still alive on the cross when pierced by the lance, and was
based on the assertion that the relation in Matthew originally dif-
fered in this respect from that in John, and had been altered to
secure harmony. All other questions relating to the teachings of
Olivi the council referred to the Franciscans for settlement, show-
ing that they were deemed of minor importance, after they had
been exhaustively debated before it by Bonagrazia da Bergamo in
attack and Ubertino da Casale in defence. Thus the council con-
demned neither his person nor his writings ; that the result was
held as vindicating his orthodoxy was seen when, in 1313, his feast-
day was celebrated with unexampled enthusiasm at aSarbonne, and
was attended by a concourse equal to that which assembled at the
anniversary of the Portiuncula. Moreover, after the heat of the
controversy had passed away, the subsequent condemnation of his
writings by John XXII. was removed by Sixtus IV., towards the
end of the fifteenth century. Olivi's teachings may therefore fairly
be concluded to have contained no very revolutionary doctrines.
In fact, shortly after his death all the Franciscans of Provence
were required to sign an abjuration of his errors, among which
was enumerated the one respecting the wound of Christ, but noth-
ing was said respecting the graver aberrations subsequently at-
tributed to him.*
* Wadding, ann. 1291, No. 13; 1297, No. 35; 1312, No. 4.— Lib. Sententt.
Inq. Tolos. pp. 306, 319.— Coll. Doat. XXVII. fol. 7 sqq.-Lib. i. Clement, i. 1.—
Tocco, op. cit. pp. 509-10.— MSS. Bib. Nat. No. 4270, fol. 168.— Franz Ehrle
(ubi sup. 1885, p. 544 ; 1886, pp. 389-98, 402-5 ; 1887, pp. 449. 491).— Raymond de
Fronciacho (Archiv, 18S7, p. 17).
The traditional wrath of the Conventuals was still strong enough in the year
1500 to lead the general chapter held at Terni to forbid, under pain of imprison-
OLIVI'S WORKS CONDEMNED. 47
On the other hand he was unquestionably the heresiarch of the
Spirituals, both of France and Italy, regarded by them as the di-
lect successor of Joachim and Francis. The Historia Tribidationum
finds in the pseud o-Joachitic prophecies a clear account of all the
events in his career. Enthusiastic Spirituals, who held the revolu-
tionary doctrines of the Everlasting Gospel, testified before the
Inquisition that the third age of the Church had its beginning in
Olivi, who thus supplanted St. Francis himself. He was inspired
of heaven ; his doctrine had been revealed to him in Paris, some
said, while he was washing his hands ; others that the illumination
came to him from Christ while in church, at the third hour of
the day. Thus his utterances were of equal authority with those
of St. Paul, and were to be obeyed by the Church without the
change of a letter. It is no wonder that he was held account-
able for the extravagances of those who regarded him with such
veneration and recognized him as their leader and teacher.*
When Olivi died, his former prosecutor, Giovanni di Murro,
was general of the Order, and, strong as were his own ascetic
convictions, he lost no time in completing the work which he had
previously failed to accomplish. Olivi's memory was condemned
as that of a heretic, and an order was issued for the surrender
of all his writings, which was enforced with unsparing rigor, and
continued by his successor, Gonsalvo de Balboa. Pons Botugati,
a friar eminent for piety and eloquence, refused to surrender for
burning some of the prohibited tracts, and was chained closely to
the wall in a damp and fetid dungeon, where bread and water
were sparingly flung to him, and where he soon rotted to death
in filth, so that when his body was hastily thrust into an uncon-
secrated grave it was found that already the flesh was burrowed
through by worms. A number of other recalcitrants were also
imprisoned with almost equal harshness, and in the next general
chapter the reading of all of Olivi's works was formally prohibited.
That much iucendiary matter was in circulation, attributed direct-
ly or indirectly to him, is shown by a catalogue of Olivist tracts,
treating of such dangerous questions as the power of the pope to
ment, any member of the Order from possessing any of Olivi's writings. — Franz
Ehrle (ubi sup. 1887, pp. 457-8).
* Hist. Tribulat. (loc. cit. pt S88-9).— Coll. Doat, XXVII. fol. 7 sqq.— Lib.
Sententt. Inq. Tolos. pp. 306, 308. — Bernard. Guidon. Practica P. T.
48 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
dispense from vows, his right to claim implicit obedience in mat-
ters concerning faith and morals, and other similar mutterings of
rebellion.*
The work of Olivi which called forth the greatest discussion,
and as to which the evidences are peculiarly irreconcilable, was
his Postil on the Apocalypse. It was from this that the chief
arguments were drawn for his condemnation. In an inquisitorial
sentence of 1318 we learn that his writings were then again under
examination by order of John XXII. ; that they were held to be
the source of all the errors which the sectaries were then expiating
at the stake, and that principal among them was his work on the
Apocalypse, so that, until the papal decision, no one was to hold
him as a saint or a Catholic. When the condemnatory report of
eight masters of theology came, in 131(J, the Spirituals held that
the outrage thus committed on the faith deprived of all virtue the
sacrament of the altar. Xo formal judgment was rendered, how-
ever, until February 8, 1326, when John XXII. finally condemned
the Postil on the Apocalypse after a careful scrutiny in the Con-
sistory, and the general chapter of the Order forbade any one to
read or possess it. One of the reports of the experts upon it has
reached us. It is impossible to suppose that they deliberately
manufactured the extracts on which their conclusions are based,
and these extracts are quite sufficient to show that the work was
an echo of the most dangerous doctrines of the Everlasting Gos-
pel. The fifth age is drawing to an end, and, under the figure of
the mystical Antichrist, there are prophecies about the pseudo-pope,
pseudo-Christs, and pseudo-prophets in terms which clearly allude
to the existing hierarchy. The pseudo-pope will be known by his
heresies concerning the perfection of evangelical poverty (as we
shall see was the case with John XXII. ), and the pseudo-Joachim's
prophecies concerning Frederic II. are quoted to show how prel-
ates and clergy who defend the Rule will be ejected. The carnal
church is the Great AYhore of Babylon ; it makes drunken and
* Hist. Tribulat. (loc. cit. pp. 300-1).— Tocco, pp. 489-91, 503-4.
Wadding (arm. 1297, No. 33-5) identifies Pons Botugati with St. Pons Car-
bonelh, the illustrious teacher of St. Louis of Toulouse. Franz Ehrle (Archiv
fur L. u. K. 1886, p. 300) says he can find no evidence of this, and the author
of the Hist. Tribulat., in his detailed account of the affair, would hardly have
omitted a fact so serviceable to his cause.
OPINIONS ATTRIBUTED TO OLIVI. 49
corrupts the nations with its carnalities, and oppresses the few
remaining righteous, as under Paganism it did with its idolatries.
In forty generations from the harvest of the apostles there will
be a new harvest of the Jews and of the whole world, to be gar-
nered by the Evangelical Order, to which all power and authority
will be transferred. There are to be a sixth and a seventh a^e,
after which comes the Day of Judgment. The date of this latter
cannot be computed, but at the end of the thirteenth century the
sixth age is to open. The carnal church, or Babylon, will expire,
and the triumph of the spiritual church will commence.*
It has been customary for historians to assume that this resur-
rection of the Everlasting Gospel was Olivi's Work, though it is
evident from the closing years of his career that he could not have
been guilty of uttering such inflammatory doctrines, and this is
confirmed by the silence of the Council of Yienne concerning
them, although it condemned his other trifling errors after a thor-
ough debate on the subject by his enemies and friends. In fact,
Bonagrazia, in the name of the Conventuals, bitterly attacked his
memory and adduced a long list of his errors, including cursorily
certain false and fantastic prophecies in the Postil on the Apoca-
lypse and his stigmatizing the Church as the Great Whore. Had
such passages as the above existed they would have been set forth
at length and defence would have been impossible. Ubertino in
reply, however, boldly characterized the assertion as most menda-
cious and impious ; Olivi, he declared, had always spoken most
reverently of the Church and Holy See ; the Postil itself closed
with a submission to the Roman Church as the universal mistress,
and in the body of the work the Holy See was repeatedly alluded
to as the seat of God and of Christ ; the Church Militant and the
Church Triumphant are spoken of as the seats of God which will
last to the end, while the reprobate are Babylon and the Great
Whore. It is impossible that Ubertino can have quoted these pas-
sages falsely, for Bonagrazia would have readily overwhelmed him
with confusion, and the Council of Yienne would have rendered a
far different judgment. We know from undoubted sources that
* Baluz. et Mansi II. 249-50.— Bern. Guidon. Pract. P. v.— Doat, XXVII.
fol. 7 sqq.— Bern. Guidon. Vit. Johann. PP. XXII. (Muratori S. R. I. III. 11
491). — Wadding, ann. 1325, No. 4.— Alvar. Pelag. de Planctu Eccles. Lib. 11. art.
59.— Baluz. et Mansi II. 266-70.
III.— 4
50 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
the revolutionary doctrines commonly attributed to Olivi were
entertained by those who considered themselves and were consid-
ered to be his disciples, and we can only assume that in their mis-
guided zeal they interpolated his Postil, and gave to their own
mystic dreams the authority of his great name.*
After the death of Olivi the Franciscan officials seem to have
felt themselves unable to suppress the sect which was spreading
and organizing throughout Languedoc. For some reason not ap-
parent, unless it may have been jealousy of the Dominicans, the
aid of the Inquisition was not called in, and the inquisitors with-
held their hands from offenders of the rival Order. The regular
church authorities, however, were appealed to, and in 1299 Gilles,
Archbishop of Xarbonne, held at Beziers a provincial synod, in
which were condemned the Beguines of both sexes who under the
lead of learned men of an honorable Order (the Franciscans) en-
gaged in religious exercises not prescribed by the Church, wore
vestments distinguishing them from other folk, performed novel
penances and abstinences, administered vows of chastity, often
not observed, held nocturnal conventicles, frequented heretics, and
proclaimed that the end of the world was at hand, and that already
the reign of Antichrist had begun. From them many scandals
had already arisen, and there was danger of more and greater
troubles. The bishops were therefore ordered, in their several
dioceses, to investigate these sectaries closely and to suppress them.
We see from this that there was rapidly growing up a new heresy
based upon the Everlasting Gospel, with the stricter Franciscans
as a nucleus, but extending among the people. For this popular
propaganda the Tertiary Order afforded peculiar facilities, and
we shall find hereafter that the Beguines, as they were generally
called, were to a great extent Tertiaries, when not full members
of the Order. There was nothing, however, to tempt the cupidity
* Franz Ehrle (Archiv f. L. u. K. 1886, pp. 368-70. 407-9) —Wadding, ann<
1297, No. 36-47.— Baluz. et Mansi II. 276.
Tocco (Archivio Storico Italiano, T. XVII. No. 2.— Cf. Franz Ehrle, Archiv
fur L. u. K. 1887, p. 493) has recently found in the Laurentian Library a MS. of
Olivi's Postil on the Apocalypse. It contains all the passages cited in the con-
demnation, showing that the commission which sat in judgment did not invent
them, but as it is of the fifteenth century it does not invalidate the suggestion
that his followers interpolated his work after his death.
RESULTS OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 51
of the episcopal officials to the prosecution of those whose princi-
pal belief consisted in the renunciation of all worldly goods, and
it is not likely that they showed themselves more diligent in their
duties than we have seen them when greater interests were at
stake. The action of the council may therefore be safely assumed
as wasted, except as justifying persecution within the Order. The
lay Beguines doubtless enjoyed practical immunity, while the
Spiritual Friars continued to endure the miseries at the hands of
their superiors for which monastic life afforded such abundant
opportunities. Thus, at Villefranche, when Raymond Auriole
and Jean Prime refused to admit that their vows permitted a
liberal use of the things of the world, they were imprisoned in
chains and starved till Raymond died, deprived of the sacraments
as a heretic, and Jean barely escaped with his life.*
Thus passed away the unfortunate thirteenth century — that
age of lofty aspirations unfulfilled, of brilliant dreams unsubstan-
tial as visions, of hopes ever looking to fruition and ever disap-
pointed. The human intellect had awakened, but as yet the hu-
man conscience slumbered, save in a few rare souls who mostly
paid in disgrace or death the penalty of their precocious sensitive-
ness. That wonderful century passed away and left as its legacy
to its successor vast progress, indeed, in intellectual activity, but
on the spiritual side of the inheritance a dreary void. All efforts
to elevate the ideals of man had miserably failed. Society was
harder and coarser, more carnal and more worldly than ever, and
it is not too much to say that the Inquisition had done its full
share to bring this about by punishing aspirations, and by teach-
ing that the only safety lay in mechanical conformity, regardless
of abuses and unmindful of corruption. The results of that hun-
dred years of effort and suffering are well symbolized in the two
popes with whom it began and ended — Innocent III. and that
pinchbeck Innocent, Boniface VIII., who, in the popular phrase
of the time, came in like a fox, ruled like a lion, and died like
a dog. In intellect and learning Boniface was superior to his
model, in imperious pride his equal, in earnestness, in self-devo-
* Concil. Biterrens. ann. 1299 c. 4 (Martene Thesaur. IV. 220).— Ubertini
Declaratio (Archiv f. Litt.- u. K. 1887, pp. 183-4).
52 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
tion, in loftiness of aim, in all that dignifies ambition, immeasura-
bly his inferior. It is no wonder that the apocalyptic specula-
tions of Joachim should acquire .fresh hold on the minds of those
who could not reconcile the spiritual desert in which they lived
with their conception of the merciful providence of God. To such
men it seemed impossible that he could permit a continuance of
the cruel wickedness which pervaded the Church, and through it
infected society at large. This was plainly beyond the power of
a few earnest zealots to cure, or even to mitigate, so the divine
interposition was requisite to create a new earth, inhabited only
bv the few virtuous Elect, under a reign of ascetic poverty and
all-embracing love.
One of the most energetic and impetuous missionaries of these
beliefs was Arnaldo de Yilanova, in some respects, perhaps, the
most remarkable man of his time, whom we have onlv of late
learned to know thoroughly, from the researches of Seilor Pelayo.
As a physician he stood unrivalled. Kings and popes disputed
his services, and his voluminous writings on medicine and hygiene
were reprinted m collective editions six times during the sixteenth
century, besides numerous issues of special treatises. As a chem-
ist he is more doubtfully said to have left his mark in several
useful discoveries. As an alchemist he had the repute of pro-
ducing ingots of gold in the court of Robert of Xaples, a great
patron of the science, and his treatises on the subject were in-
cluded in collections of such works printed as lately as the eight-
eenth century. A student of both Arabic and Hebrew, he trans-
lated from Costa ben Luca treatises on incantations, ligatures, and
other magic devices. He wrote on astronomy and on oneiro-
mancy, for he was an expert expounder of dreams, and also on
surveying and wine-making. He draughted laws for Frederic of
Trinacria which that enlightened monarch promulgated and en-
forced, and his advice to Frederic and his brother Jayme II. of
Aragon on their duties as monarchs stamps him as a conscientious
statesman. AVhen Jayme applied to him for the explanation of a
mysterious dream he not only satisfied the king with his exposi-
tion, but proceeded to warn him that his chief duty lay in admin-
istering justice, first to the poor, and then to the rich. When
asked how often he gave audience to the poor, Jayme answered,
once a week, and also when he rode out for pleasure. Arnaldo
ARNALDO DE VILANOVA. 53
sternly reproved him; he was earning damnation; the rich had
access to him every day, morning, noon, and night, the poor but
seldom ; he made of God the hog of St. Anthony, which received
only the refuse rejected by all. If he wished to earn salvation he
must devote himself to the welfare of the poor, without which, in
spite of the teachings of the Church, neither psalms, nor masses,
nor fasting, nor even alms would suffice. To Jayme he was not
only physician but counsellor, venerable and much beloved, and
he was repeatedly employed on diplomatic missions by the kings
of both Aragon and Sicily.*
Multifarious as were these occupations, they consumed but a
portion of his restless activity. In dedicating to Robert of Naples
his treatise on surveying, he describes himself —
" Yeu, Arnaut de Vilanova . . .
Doctor en leys et eu decrets,
Et en siensa de strolomia,
Et en Tart de medicina,
Et en la santa teulogia " —
and, although a layman, married, and a father, his favorite field of
labor was theology, which he had studied with the Dominicans of
Montpellier. In 1292 he commenced with a work on the Tetra-
grammaton, or ineffable name of Jehovah, in which he sought to
explain by natural reasons the mystery of the Trinity. Embarked
in such speculations he soon became a confirmed Joachite. To a
man of his lofty spiritual tendencies and tender compassion for his
fellows, the wickedness and cruelty of mankind were appalling, and
especially the crimes of the clergy, among whom he reckoned the
Mendicants as the worst. Their vices he lashed unsparingly, and
he naturally fell in with the speculations of the pseudo-Joachitic
writings, anticipating the speedy advent of Antichrist and the Day
of Judgment. In numberless works composed in both Latin and
the vernacular he commented upon and popularized the Joachitic
books, even going so far as to declare that the revelation of Cyril
was more precious than all Scripture. Such a man naturally
sympathized with the persecuted Spirituals. He boldly undertook
their defence in sundry tracts, and when, in 1309, Frederic of Tri-
* Pelayo, Heterodoxos Espanoles, I. 450-61, 475, 590-1, 726-7, 772.— M. Flac.
Illyr. Cat. Test. Veritatis, pp. 1732 sqq. (Ed. 1603).
54 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
nacria applied to him to expound his dream,he seized the opportunity
to invoke the monarch's commiseration for their sufferings, by ex-
plaining to him how, when they sought to appeal to the Holy See,
their brethren persecuted and slew them, and how evangelical pov-
erty was treated as the gravest of crimes. He used his influence
similarly at the court of jSTaples, thus providing for them, as we
shall see, a place of refuge in their necessity.*
With his impulsive temperament it was impossible for him to
hold aloof from the bitter strife then raging. Before the thir-
teenth century was out he addressed letters to the Dominicans and
Franciscans of Paris and MontpeUier, to the Kings of France and
Aragon, and even to the Sacred College, announcing the approach-
ing end of the world ; the wicked Catholics, and especially the
clergy, were the members of the coming Antichrist. This aroused
an active controversy, in which neither party spared the other.
After a war of tracts the Catalan Dominicans formally accused
him before the Bishop of Girona, and he responded that they had
no standing in court, as they were heretics and madmen, dogs and
jugglers, and he cited them to appear before the pope by the fol-
lowing Lent. It could only have been the royal favor which pre-
served him from the fate at the stake of many a less audacious
controversialist ; and when, in 1300, King Jayme sent him on a mis-
sion to Philippe le Bel, he boldly laid his work on the advent of
Antichrist before the University of Paris. The theologians looked
askance on it, and, in spite of his ambassadorial immunity, on the
eve of his return he was arrested without warning by the episco-
pal Official. The Archbishop of Xarbonne interposed in vain, and
he was bailed out on security of three thousand livres, furnished by
the Yiscount of Xarbonne and other friends. Brought before the
masters of theology, he was forced by threats of imprisonment to
recant upon the spot, without being allowed to defend himself,
and one can well believe his statement that one of his most eaerer
judges was a Franciscan, whose zeal was doubtless inflamed by the
portentous appearance of another Olivi from the prolific South.f
A formal appeal to Boniface was followed by a personal visit
* Pelayo, I. 454, 458, 464-6, 468-9, 730-1, 779.— Franz EUrle, Archiv fur Litt.-
und Kirchengesclnchte, 1886, 327-8.
t Pelayo, I. 460, 464-8, 739-45.
ARNALDO DE VILANOVA. 55
to the papal court. Received at first with jeers, his obstinacy pro-
voked repression. As a relapsed, he might have been burned, but
he was onty imprisoned and forced to a second recantation, in
spite of which Philippe le Bel, at the assembly of the Louvre in
1303, in his charges of heresy against Boniface asserted that the
pope had approved a book of Arnaldo's which had already been
burned by himself and by the University of Paris. Boniface, in
fact, in releasing him, imposed on him silence on theologic matters,
though appreciating his medical skill and appointing him papal
physician. For a Avhile he kept his peace, but a call from heaven
forced him to renewed activity, and he solemnly warned Boniface
of the divine vengeance if he remained insensible to the duty
of averting the wrath to come by a thorough reformation of the
Church. The catastrophe of Anagni soon followed, and Arnaldo,
who had left the papal court, naturally regarded it as a confirma-
tion of his prophecy, and looked upon himself as an envoy of God.
"With a fierce denunciation of clerical corruptions he repeated the
warning to Benedict XL, who responded by imposing a penance
on him and seizing all his apocalyptic tracts. In about a month
Benedict, too, was dead, and Arnaldo announced that a third mes-
sage would be sent to his successor, " though when and by whom
has not been revealed to me, but I know that if he heeds it divine
power will adorn him with its sublimest gifts ; if he rejects it, God
will visit him with a judgment so terrible that it will be a wonder
to all the earth." *
For some years we know nothing of his movements, although
his fertile pen was busily employed with little intermission, and the
Church vainly endeavored to suppress his writings. In 1305 Fray
Guillermo, Inquisitor of Valencia, excommunicated and ejected
from church Gambaldo de Pilis, a servant of King Jayme, for
possessing and circulating them. The king applied to Guillermo
for his reasons, and, on being refused, angrily wrote to Eymerich,
the Dominican general. He declared that Arnaldo's writings were
* Pelayo, I. 470-4, 729, 734.— D'Argentre I. 11. 417.— Du Puy, Histoire du
Differend, Pr. 103.
One of the charges against Bernard DSlicieux, in 1319, was that of sending to
Arnaldo certain magic writings to encompass the death of Benedict A witness
was found to swear that this was the cause of Benedict's death. — MSS- Bib. Nat.,
fonds latin, No. 4270, fol. 12, 50, 51, 61
56 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
eagerlv read by himself, his queen and his children, by archbishops
and bishops, by the clergy and the laity. He demanded that the
sentence be revoked as uncanonical, else he would punish Fray
Guillermo severely and visit with his displeasure all the Domini-
cans of his dominions. It was probably this royal favor which
saved Arnaldo when he came near being burned at Santa Christina,
and escaped with no worse infliction than being stigmatized as a
necromancer and enchanter, a heretic and a pope of the heretics.*
When the persecution of the Spirituals of Provence was at its
height. Arnaldo procured from Charles the Lame of Naples, who
was also Count of Provence, a letter to the general, Gerald, which
for a time put a stop to it. In 1309 we find him at Avignon, on
a mission from Jayme II., well received by Clement V., who
prized highly his skill as a physician. He used effectively this po-
sition by secretly persuading the pope to send for the leaders of
the Spirituals, in order to learn from them orally and in writing of
what they complained and what reformation they desired in their
Order. With regard to his own affairs he was not so fortunate.
At a public hearing before the pope and cardinals, in October,
1309, he predicted the end of the world within the century, and
the advent of Antichrist within its first forty years ; he dwelt at
much length on the depravity of clergy and laity, and complained
bitterly of the persecution of those who desired to live in evan-
gelical poverty. All this was to be expected of him, but he added
the incredible indiscretion of reading a detailed account of the
dreams of Jayme II. and Frederic of Trinacria, their doubts and
his explanations and exhortations — matters, all of them, as sacredly
confidential as the confession of a penitent. Cardinal Xapoleone
Orsini, the protector of the Spirituals, wrote to Jayme congratu-
lating him on his piety as revealed by that wise and illuminated
man, inflamed with the love of God, Master Arnaldo, but this ef-
fort to conjure the tempest was unavailing. The Cardinal of
Porto and Ramon Ortiz, Dominican Provincial of Aragon, promptly
reported to Jayme that he and his brother had been represented as
wavering in the faith and as believers in dreams, and advised him
no longer to employ as his envoy such a heretic as Arnaldo.
Jayme' s pride was deeply wounded. It was in vain that Clement
Pelayo, I. 481, 772.
CLEMENT GIVES THEM A HEARING. 57
assured him that he had paid no attention to Arnaldo's discourse ;
the king wrote to the pope and cardinals and to his brother deny-
ing the story of his dream and treating Arnaldo as an impostor.
Frederic was less susceptible : he wrote to Jayme that the story
could do them no harm, and that the real infamy would lie in
abandoning Arnaldo in his hour of peril. Arnaldo took refuge
with him, and not long afterwards was sent by him again to Avi-
gnon on a mission, but perished during the voyage. The exact date
of his death is unknown, but it was prior to February, 1311. For
selfish reasons Clement mourned his loss, and issued a bull an-
nouncing that Arnaldo had been his physician and had promised
him a most useful book which he had written ; he had died with-
out doing so, and now Clement summoned any one possessing the
precious volume to deliver it to him."*
The interposition of Arnaldo offered to the Spirituals an un-
expected prospect of deliverance. From Languedoc to Venice and
Florence they were enduring the bitterest persecution from their
superiors ; they were cast into dungeons where they starved to
death, and were exposed to the infinite trials for which monastic
life afforded such abundant opportunities, when Arnaldo persuaded
Clement to make an energetic effort to heal the schism in the Or-
der and to silence the accusations which the Conventuals brought
against their brethren. An occasion was found in an appeal from
the citizens of Narbonne setting forth that the books of Olivi had
been unjustly condemned, that the Rule of the Order was disre-
garded, and those who observed it were persecuted, and further
praying that a special cult of Olivi's remains might be permitted.
A commission of important personages was formed to investigate
the faith of Angelo da Clarino and his disciples, who still dwelt in
the neighborhood of Rome, and who were pronounced good Catho-
lics. Such leading Spirituals as Raymond Gaufridi, the former
general, Ubertino da Casale, the intellectual leader of the sect,
Raymond de Giniac, former Provincial of Aragon, Gui de Mire-
poix, Bartolommeo Sicardi, and others were summoned to Avignon,
* Hist. Tribulationum (Archiv fur Litt.- u. K. 1386, 1. 129).— Pelayo, I. 481-
3. 773, 776.— Wadding, aim. 1312, No. 7.— Cf. Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ami.
1310; Pe Langii Chron. Citicens. ann. 1320.
58 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
where they were ordered to draw up in writing the points which
they deemed requisite for the reformation of the Order. To en-
able them to perform this duty in safety they were taken under
papal protection by a bull which shows in its minute specifications
how real were the perils incurred by those who sought to restore
the Order to its primitive purity. Apparently stimulated by these
warnings, the general, Gonsalvo, at the Chapter of Padua in 1310,
caused the adoption of many regulations to diminish the luxury
and remove the abuses which pervaded the Order, but the evil was
too deep-seated. He was resolved, moreover, on reducing the Spir-
ituals to obedience, and the hatred between the two parties grew
bitterer than ever.*
The articles of complaint, thirty-five in number, which the
Spirituals laid before Clement V. in obedience to his commands
formed a terrible indictment of the laxity and corruption which
had crept into the Order. It was answered but feebly by the Con-
ventuals, partly by denying its allegations, partly by dialectical
subtleties to prove that the Kule did not mean what it said, and
partly by accusing the Spirituals of heresy. Clement appointed a
commission of cardinals and theologians to hear both sides. For
two years the contest raged with the utmost fury. During its con-
tinuance Eaymond Gaufridi, Gui de Mirepoix, and Bartolommeo
Sicardi died — poisoned by their adversaries, according to one ac-
count, worn out with ill-treatment and insult according to another.
Clement had temporarily released the delegates of the Spirituals
from the jurisdiction of their enemies, who had the audacity,
March 1, 1311, to enter a formal protest against his action, alleg-
ing that they were excommunicated heretics under trial, who
could not be thus protected. In this prolonged discussion the
opposing leaders were Ubertino da Casale and Bonagrazia (Bon-
# Franz Ehrle (Archiv fur Litt.- u. K. 1886, pp. 380-1, 384, 386 ; 1887, p. 36).—
Rayrn. de Fronciacho (lb. 1887, p. 18).— Eymerich p. 316.— Angeli Clarini Litt.
Excus. (Archiv, 1885, pp. 531-2).— Wadding, ann. 1210, No, 6.— Regest. Clem-
ent. PP. V. T. V. pp. 379 sqq. Romas, 1887).
At the same time that the general, Gonsalvo, was seeking to repress the ac-
quisitiveness of the friars they were procuring from the Emperor Henry VII. a
decree annulling a local statute of Nuremberg which forbade any citizen from
giving them more than a single gold piece at a time, or a measure of corn.—
Chron. Glassberger ann. 1310.
THEIR APPARENT VICTORY. 59
cortese) da Bergamo. The former, while absorbed in devotion on
Mont' Alverno, the scene of St. Francis's transfiguration, had been
anointed by Christ and raised to a lofty degree of spiritual insight.
His reputation is illustrated by the story that while laboring with
much success in Tuscany he had been summoned to Rome by
Benedict XL to answer some accusations brought against him.
Soon afterwards the people of Perugia sent a solemn embassy to
the pope with two requests — one that Ubertino be restored to
them, the other that the pope and cardinals would reside in their
city — whereat Benedict smiled and said, " I see you love us but a
little, since you prefer Fra Ubertino to us." He was a Joachite,
moreover, who did not hesitate to characterize the abdication of
Celestin as a horrible innovation, and the accession of Boniface as
a usurpation. Bonagrazia was perhaps superior to his opponent
in learning and not his inferior in steadfast devotion to what he
deemed the truth, though Ubertino characterized him as a lay
novice, skilled in the cunning tricks of the law. We shall see
hereafter his readiness to endure persecution in defence of his own
ideal of poverty ; and the antagonism of two such men upon the
points at issue between them is the most striking illustration of
the impracticable nature of the questions which raised so heated a
strife and cost so much blood. *
The Spirituals failed in their efforts to obtain a decree of sepa-
ration which should enable them, in peace, to live according to their
interpretation of the Rule, but in other respects the decision of
the commission was wholly in their favor, in spite of the persist-
ent effort of the Conventuals to divert attention from the real
questions at issue to the assumed errors of Olivi. Clement ac-
cepted the decision, and in full consistory, in presence of both
parties, ordered them to live in mutual love and charity, to bury
the past in oblivion, and not to insult each other for past differ-
ences. Ubertino replied, " Holy Father, they call us heretics and
defenders of heresy ; there are whole books full of this in your ar-
chives and those of the Order. They must either allege these things
* Archiv fur L. u. K. 1887, pp. 93 sqq.— Hist. Tribulat. (Ibid. 1886, pp. 130,
132-4).— Ehrle (Ibid. 1866, pp. 366, 380).— Wadding, ann. 1310, No. 1-5.— Chron.
Glassberger ann. 1310. — Ubertini de Casali Tract, de septem Statibus Ecclesiae
c. iv.
60 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
and let us defend ourselves, or they must recall them. Otherwise
there can be no peace between us." To this Clement rejoined,
" We declare as pope, that from what has been stated on both
sides before us, no one ought to call you heretics and defenders
of heresv. What exists to that effect in our archives or elsewhere
we wholly erase and pronounce to be of no validity against you."
The result was seen in the Council of Yienne (1311-12), which
adopted the canon known as Exivi de Paradiso, designed to settle
forever the controversy which had lasted so long. Angelo da
Clarino declares that this was based wholly upon the propositions
of Ubertino ; that it was the crowning victory of the Spirituals,
and his heart overflows with joy when he communicates the good
news to his brethren. It determined, he says, eighty questions
concerning the interpretation of the Kule ; hereafter those who
serve the Lord in hermitages and are obedient to their bishops
are secured against molestation by any person. The inquisitors,
he further stated, were placed under control of the bishops, which
he evidently regarded as a matter of special importance, for in
Provence and Tuscany the Inquisition was Franciscan, and thus
in the hands of the Conventuals. We have seen that Clement
delayed issuing the decrees of the council. He was on the point
of doing so, after careful revision, when his death, in 131-1, fol-
lowed by a long interregnum, caused a further postponement.
John XXII. was elected in August, 1316, but he, too, desired time
for further revision, and it was not until November, 1317, that the
canons were finally issued. That they underwent change in this
process is more than probable, and the canon Exivi de Paradiso
was on a subject peculiarly provocative of alteration. As it has
reached us it certainly does not justify Angelo's paean of tri-
umph. It is true that it insists on a more rigid compliance
with the Rule. It forbids the placing of coffers in churches for
the collection of money ; it pronounces the friars incapable of
enjoying inheritances ; it deprecates the building of magnificent
churches, and convents which are rather palaces ; it prohibits the
acquisition of extensive gardens and great vineyards, and even
the storing up of granaries of corn and cellars of wine where the
brethren can live from day to day by beggary ; it declares that
whatever is given to the Order belongs to the Church of Rome,
and that the friars have only the use of it, for they can hold noth-
CLEMENT PROTECTS THEM. q±
ing, either individually or in common. In short, it fully justified
the complaints of the Spirituals and interpreted the Rule in ac-
cordance with their views, but it did not, as Angelo claimed, al-
low them to live by themselves in peace, and it subjected them to
their superiors. This was to remand them into slavery, as the
great majority of the Order were Conventuals, jealous of the as-
sumption of superior sanctity by the Spirituals, and irritated by
their defeat and by the threatened enforcement of the Eule in all
its rigidity. This spirit was still further inflamed by the action
of the general, Gonsalvo, who zealously set to work to carry out
the reforms prescribed by the canon Exivi. He traversed the
various provinces, pulling down costly buildings and compelling
the return of gifts and legacies to donors and heirs. This excited
great indignation among the laxer brethren, and his speedy death,
in 1313, was attributed to foul play. The election of his succes-
sor, Alessandro da Alessandria, one of the most earnest of the
Conventuals, showed that the Order at large was not disposed to
submit quietly to pope and council.*
As might have been expected, the strife between the parties
became bitterer than ever. Clement's leaning in favor of asceti-
cism is shown by his canonization, in 1313, of Celestin V., but when
the Spirituals applied to him for protection against their brethren
he contented himself with ordering them to return to their con-
vents and commanding them to be kindly treated. These com-
mands were disregarded. Mutual hatreds were too strong for
power not to be abused. Clement did his best to force the Con-
ventuals to submission; as early as July, 1311, he had ordered
Bonagrazia to betake himself to the convent of Yalcabrere in
Comminges, and not to leave it without special papal license. At
the same time he summoned before him Guiraud Yallette, the
Provincial of Provence, and fifteen of the principal officials of the
Order throughout the south of France, who were regarded as the
leaders in the oppression of the Spirituals. In public consistory
* Ubertini Responsio (Archiv fur L. u. K. 1887, p. 87). — Baluz. et Mansi II.
278.— Franz Ebrle (Archiv fur L. n. K. 1885, pp. 541-2, 545 ; 1886, p. 362).—
Hist. Tribulat. (Ibid. 1886, pp. 138-41).— C. 1, Clement, v. 11.— Wadding, ann.
1312, No. 9; ann. 1313, No. 1.— Chrou. Glassberger ann. 1312.— Alvar. Pelag. de
Planet. Eccles. Lib. n. art. 67.
£2 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
he repeated his commands, scolded them for disobedience and re-
bellion, dismissed from office those who had positions, and declared
ineligible those who were not officials. Those whom he ejected he
replaced with suitable persons whom he strictly commanded to
preserve the peace and show favor to the sorely afflicted minority.
In spite of this the scandals and complaints continued, until the
general, Alessandro, granted to the Spirituals the three convents
of Xarbonne, Beziers, and Carcassonne, and ordered that the
superiors placed over them should be acceptable. The change
was not effected without the employment of force, in which the
Spirituals had the advantage of popular sympathy, and the con-
vents thus favored became houses of refuge for the discontented
brethren elsewhere. Then for a while there seems to have been
quiet, but with Clement ?s death, in 1314, the turmoil commenced
afresh. Bonagrazia, under pretext of sickness, hastened to leave
his place of confinement, and joined eagerly in the renewed dis-
turbance ; the dismissed officials again made their influence felt ;
the Spirituals complained that they were abused and defamed in
private and in public, pelted with mud and stones, deprived of
food and even of the sacraments, despoiled of their habits, and
scattered to distant places or imprisoned.*
It is possible that Clement might have found some means of
dissolving the bonds between these irreconcilable parties, but for
the insubordination of the Italian Spirituals. These grew impa-
tient during the long conferences which preceded the Council
of Yienne. Subjected to daily afflictions and despairing of rest
within the Order, they eagerly listened to the advice of a wise and
holy man, Canon Martin of Siena, who assured them that, how-
ever few their numbers, they had a right to secede and elect their
own general. Under the lead of Giacopo di San Gemignano they
did so, and effected an independent organization. This was rank
rebellion and greatly prejudiced the case of the Spirituals at Avig-
non. Clement would not listen to anything that savored of con-
cessions to those wrho thus threw off their pledged obedience. He
promptly sent commissions for their trial, and they were duly ex-
# Jordan. CI iron. c. 326 Partic. iii. (Muratori Antiq. XI. 767).— Hist. Tribulat.
(Archiv, 1886, 140-1).— Franz Ehrle (Ibid. 1886, pp. 158-64; 1887, pp. 33, 40).—
Rayni. de Fronciacho (lb. 1887, p. 27).
REBELLION IN ITALY. 63
communicated as schismatics and rebels, founders of a supersti-
tious sect, and disseminators of false and pestiferous doctrines.
Persecution against them raged more furiously than ever. In
some places, supported by the laity, they ejected the Conventuals
from their houses and defended themselves by force of arms, dis-
regarding the censures of the Church which were lavished on them.
Others made the best of their way to Sicily, and others again,
shortly before Clement's death, sent letters to him professing sub-
mission and obedience, but the friends of the Spirituals feared to
compromise themselves by even presenting them. After the ac-
cession of John XXII. they made another attempt to reach the
pope, but by that time the Conventuals were in full control and
threw the envoys into prison as excommunicated heretics. Such
of them as were able to do so escaped to Sicily. It is worthy of
note that everywhere the virtues and sanctity of these so-called
heretics won for them popular favor, and secured them protection
more or less efficient, and this was especially the case in Sicily.
King Frederic, mindful of the lessons taught him by Arnaldo de
Vilanova, received the fugitives graciously and allowed them to
establish themselves, in spite of repeated remonstrances on the
part of John XXII. There Henry da Ceva, whom we shall meet
again, had already sought refuge from the persecution of Boniface
VIII. and had prepared the way for those who were to follow.
In 1313 there are allusions to a pope named Celestin whom the
" Poor Men" in Sicily had elected, with a college of cardinals, who
constituted the only true Church and who were entitled to the
obedience of the faithful. Insignificant as this movement may
have seemed at the time, it subsequently aided the foundation of
the sect known as Fraticelli, who so long braved with marvellous
constancy the unsparing rigor of the Italian Inquisition.*
Into these dangerous paths of rebellion the original leaders of
* Hist. Tribulat. (loc. cit. pp. 139-40).— Lami, Antichita Toscane, pp. 596-99.
—Franz Ehrle, Archiv, 1885, pp. 156-8. — Joann. S.Victor. Chron. aim. 1319
(Muratori S. R. I. III. n. 479).— Wadding, ann. 1313, No. 4-7.— D'Argentre* I. i.
297.— Arch, de l'Inq. de Carcass. (Doat, XXVII. fol. 7 sqq.).— Raym. de Fronci-
acho (Archiv, 1887, p. 31).
Fra Francesco del Borgo San Sepolcro, who was tried by the Inquisition at
Assisi in 1311 for assuming gifts of prophecy, was probably a Tuscan Joachite
who refused submission (Franz Ehrle, Archiv fur L. u. K. 1887, p. 11).
64 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
the Italian Spirituals were not obliged to enter, as they were re-
leased from subjection to the Conventuals, and could afford to re-
main in obedience to Kome. Angelo da Clarino writes to his dis-
ciples that torment and death were preferable to separation from
the Church and its head ; the pope was the bishop of bishops, who
regulated all ecclesiastical dignities ; the power of the keys is from
Christ, and submission is due in spite of persecution. Yet, together
with these appeals are others which show how impracticable was
the position created by the belief in St. Francis as a new evan-
gelist whose Eule was a revelation. If kings or prelates com-
mand what is contrary to the faith, then obedience is due to
God, and death is to be welcomed. Francis placed in the Rule
^othinsr but what Christ bade him write, and obedience is due to
it rather than to prelates. After the persecution under John
XXII. he even quotes a prophecy attributed to Francis, to the
effect that men would arise who would render the Order odious,
and corrupt the whole Church ; there would be a pope not canoni-
cally elected who would not believe rightly as to Christ and the
Eule ; there would be a split in the Order, and the wrath of God
would visit those who cleaved to error. With clear reference to
John, he says that if a pope condemns evangelical truth as an
error he is to be left to the judgment of Christ and the doctors ;
if he excommunicates as heresy the poverty of the Gospel, he is
excommunicate of God and is a heretic before Christ. Yet, though
his faith and obedience were thus sorely tried, Angelo and his fol-
lowers never attempted a schism. He died in 1337, worn out with
sixty years of tribulation and persecution — a man of the firmest
and gentlest spirit, of the most saintly aspirations, who had fallen
on evil days and had exhausted himself in the hopeless effort to
reconcile the irreconcilable. Though John XXII. had permitted
him to assume the habit and Rule of the Celestins, he was obliged
to live in hiding, with his abode known only to a few faithful
friends and followers, of some of whom we hear as on trial before
the Inquisition as Fraticelli, in 1334. It was in the desert hermit-
age of Santa Maria di Aspro in the Basilicata ; but three days
before his death a rumor spread that a saint was dying there, and
such multitudes assembled that it was necessary to place guards
at the entrance of his retreat, and admit the people two by two to
gaze on his dying agonies. He shone in miracles, and was finallv
INSUBORDINATION IN PROVENCE. 65
beatified by the Church, which through the period of two genera-
tions had never ceased to trample on him, but his little congrega-
tion, though lost to sight in the more aggressive energy of the
Fraticelli, continued to exist, even after the tradition of self-abne-
gation was taken up under more fortunate auspices by the Obser-
vantines, until it was finally absorbed into the latter in the re-
organization of 1517 under Leo X.*
In Provence, even before the death of Clement V., there were
ardent spirits, nursing the reveries of the Everlasting Gospel, who
were not satisfied with the victory won at the Council of Yienne.
When, in 1311, the Conventuals assailed the memory of Olivi, one
of their accusations was that he had given rise to sects who
claimed that his doctrine was revealed by Christ, that it was of
equal authority with the gospel, that since Nicholas III. the papal
supremacy had been transferred to them, and they consequently
had elected a pope of their own. This Ubertino did not deny,
but only argued that he knew nothing of it ; that if it were true
Olivi was not responsible, as it was wholly opposed to his teaching,
of which not a word could be cited in support of such insanity.
Yet, undoubtedly there were sectaries calling themselves disciples of
Olivi among whom the revolutionary leaven was working, and they
could recognize no virtue or authority in the carnal and worldly
Church. In 1313 we hear of a Frere Raymond Jean, who, in a
public sermon at Montreal, prophesied that they would suffer
persecution for the faith, and when, after the sermon, he was
asked what he meant, boldly replied in the presence of several
persons, " The enemies of the faith are among ourselves. The
Church which governs us is symbolled by the Great Whore of the
Apocalypse, who persecutes the poor and the ministers of Christ.
You see we do not dare to walk openly before our brethren." He
added that the only true pope was Celestin, who had been elected
in Sicily, and his organization was the only true Church.f
Thus the Spirituals were by ho means a united body. When
* Franz Ehrle (Archiv f. L. u. K. 1885, pp. 534-9, 553-5, 558-9, 561, 563-4,
566-9 ; 1887, p. 406).— S. Francisci Prophet, xiv. (Opp. Ed. 1849, pp. 270-1).—
Chron. Glassberger ann. 1502, 1506, 1517.
f Franz Ehrle (Archiv fur Litt.- u. K. 1886, pp. 371, 411).— Arch, de l'lnq.
de Carcassonne (Doat, XXVII. fol. 7 sqq.).
III.— 5
qq THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
once the trammels of authority had been shaken off, there was
among them too much individuality and too ardent a fanaticism
for them to reach precisely the same convictions, and they were
fractioned into little groups and sects which neutralized what
slender ability they might otherwise have had to give serious
trouble to the powerful organization of the hierarchy. Yet,
whether their doctrines were submissive like those of Angelo, or
revolutionary like those of Eaymond Jean, they were all guilty
of the unpardonable crime of independence, of thinking for them-
selves where thought was forbidden, and of believing in a higher
law than that of papal decretals. Their steadfastness was soon to
be put to the test. In 1314 the general, Alessandro, died, and
after an interval of twenty months Michele da Cesena was chosen
as his successor. To the chapter of Naples which elected him the
Spirituals of Xarbonne sent a long memorial reciting the wrongs
and afflictions which they had endured since the death of Clem-
ent had deprived them of papal protection. The nomination of
Michele might seem to be a victory over the Conventuals. He
was a distinguished theologian, of resolute and unbending temper,
and resolved on enforcing the strict observance of the Rule.
"Within three months of his election he issued a general precept
enjoining rigid obedience to it. The vestments to be worn were
minutely prescribed, money was not to be accepted except in case
of absolute necessity ; no fruits of the earth were to be sold ; no
splendid buildings to be erected ; meals were to be plain and
frugal ; the brethren were never to ride, nor even to wear shoes
except under written permission of their convents when exigency
required it. The Spirituals might hope that at last they had a
general after their own heart, but they had unconsciously drifted
away from obedience, and Michele was resolved that the Order
should be a unit, and that all wanderers should be driven back
into the fold.*
A fortnight before the issuing of this precept the long inter-
regnum of the papacy had been closed by the election of John
XXII. There have been few popes who have so completely em-
bodied the ruling tendencies of their time, and few who have
exerted so large an influence on the Church, for good or for evil.
* Franz Ehrle (loc. cit. 1886, pp. 160-4).— Wadding, ann. 1316, No. 5.
JOHN XXII. 67
Sprung from the most humble origin, his abilities and force of
character had carried him from one preferment to another, until
he reached the chair of St. Peter. He was short in stature but
robust in health, choleric and easily moved to wrath, while his
enmity once excited was durable, and his rejoicing when his foes
came to an evil end savored little of the Christian pastor. Per-
sistent and inflexible, a purpose once undertaken was pursued to
the end regardless of opposition from friend or enemy. He was
especially proud of his theologic attainments, ardent in disputa-
tion, and impatient of opposition. After the fashion of the time
he was pious, for he celebrated mass almost every day, and almost
every night he arose to recite the Office or to study. Among his
good works is enumerated a poetical description of the Passion of
Christ, concluding with a prayer, and he gratified his vanity as an
author by proclaiming many indulgences as a reward to all who
would read it through. His chief characteristics, however, were
ambition and avarice. To gratify the former he waged endless
wars with the Yisconti of Milan, in which, as we are assured by
a contemporary, the blood shed would have incarnadined the
waters of Lake Constance, and the bodies of the slain would have
bridged it from shore to shore. As for the latter, his quenchless
greed displayed an exhaustless fertility of resource in converting
the treasures of salvation into current coin. He it was who first
reduced to a system the " Taxes of the Penitentiary," which
offered absolution at fixed prices for every possible form of human
wickedness, from five grossi for homicide or incest, to thirty-three
grossi for ordination below the canonical age. Before he had been
two years in the papacy he arrogated to himself the presentation
to all the collegiate benefices in Christendom, under the convenient
pretext of repressing simony, and then from their sale we are told
that he accumulated an immense treasure. Another still more
remunerative device was the practice of not filling a vacant episco-
pate from the ranks, but establishing a system of promotion from
a poorer see to a richer one, and thence to archbishoprics, so that
each vacancy gave him the opportunity of making numerous
changes and levying tribute on each. Besides these regular sources
of unhallow-ed gains he was fertile in special expedients, as when,
in 1326, needing money for his Lombard wars, he applied to Charles
le Bel for authority to levy a subsidy on the churches of France,
53 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
Germany being for the time cut off by his quarrel with Louis of
Bavaria. Charles at first refused, but finally agreed to divide the
spoils, and granted the power in consideration of a papal grant to
him of a tithe for two years — as a contemporary remarks, " et ainsi
saincte yglise, quant Vun le font, V autre VescorcheP John pro-
ceeded to extort a large sum ; from some he got a full tithe, from
others a half, from others again as much as he could extract, while
all who held benefices under papal authority had to pay a full
years revenue. His excuse for this insatiable acquisitiveness was
that he designed the monev for a crusade, but as he lived to be
a nonagenary without executing that design, the contemporary
Villani is perhaps justified in the cautious remark — " Possiby he
had such intention." Though for the most part parsimonious, he
spent immense sums in advancing the fortunes of his nephew — or
son — the Cardinal-legate Poyet, who was endeavoring to found a
principality in the north of Italy. He lavished money in making
Avignon a permanent residence for the papacy, though it was re-
served for Benedict XII. to purchase and enlarge the enormous
palace-fortress of the popes. Yet after his death, when an inven-
tory of his effects came to be made, there was found in his treasury
eighteen millions of gold florins, and jewels and vestments esti-
mated at seven millions more. Even in mercantile Florence, the
sum was so incomprehensible that Villani, whose brother was one
of the appraisers, feels obliged to explain that each million is a
thousand thousands. When we reflect upon the comparative pov-
erty of the period and the scarcity of the precious metals, we can
estimate how great an amount of suffering was represented by
such an accumulation, wrung as it was, in its ultimate source,
from the wretched peasantry, who gleaned at the best an insuf-
ficient subsistence from imperfect agriculture. We can, perhaps,
moreover, imagine how, in its passage to the papal treasury, it
represented so much of simony, so much of justice sold or denied
to the wretched litigants in the curia, so much of purgatory re-
mitted, and of pardons for sins to the innumerable applicants for
a share of the Church's treasurv of salvation^
* Villani, Chronica. Lib. xi. c. 20. — Chron. Glassberger ann. 1334.— Vitodurani
Chron. (Eccard. Corp. Hist. Med. ^Evi I. 1806-8).— Friednch, Statut. Synod.
Wratislav., Hannoverae, 1827, pp. 37, 38, 41.— Grandes Chroniques, V. 300.—
Guillel. Nangiac. Contiu. ann. 1326. — The collection of papal briefs relating to
JOHN'S VIGOROUS ACTION. 69
The permanent evil which he wrought by his shameless traffic
in benefices, and the reputation which he leff behind him, are visi-
ble in the bitter complaints which were made at the Council of
Siena, a century later, by the deputies 01 the Gallican nation.
They refer to his pontificate as that in which the Holy See re-
served all benefices to itself, when graces, expectatives, etc., were
publicly sold to the highest bidder, without regard to qualifica-
tion, so that in France many benefices were utterly ruined by
reason of the insupportable burdens laid upon them. It is no
wonder, therefore, that when St. Birgitta of Sweden was applied
to, in the latter half of the fourteenth century, by some Francis-
cans to learn whether John's decretals on the subject of the pov-
erty of Christ were correct, and she was vouchsafed two visions
of the Virgin to satisfy their scruples, the Virgin reported that
his decretals were free from error, but discreetly announced that
she was not at liberty to say whether his soul was in heaven or
in hell. Such was the man to whom the cruel irony of fate com-
mitted the settlement of the delicate scruples which vexed the
souls of the Spirituals.*
John had been actively engaged in the proceedings of the
Council of Vienne, and was thoroughly familiar with all the de-
tails of the question. When, therefore, the general, Michele, short-
ly after his accession, applied to him to restore unity in the dis-
tracted Order, his imperious temper led him to take speedy and
vigorous action. King Frederic of Trinacria was ordered to seize
the refugees in his dominions, and deliver them to their superiors to
be disciplined. Bertrand de la Tour, the Provincial of Aquitaine,
was instructed to reduce to obedience the rebels of the convents
Saxony recently printed by Schmidt (Pabstliche Urkunden und Regesten, pp.
87-295) will explain the immense sums raised by John XXII. from the sale of
canonries. It is within bounds to say that more than half the letters issued dur-
ing his pontificate are appointments of this kind.
The accounts of the papal collector for Hungary in 1320 show the thorough-
ness with which the first-fruits of every petty benefice were looked after, and the
enormous proportion consumed in the process. The collector charges himself
with 1913 gold florins received, of which only 732 reached the papal treasury.
(Theiner, Monumenta Slavor. Meridional. I. 147).
* Jo. de Ragusio Init. et Prosecut. Basil. Concil. (Monument. Concil. Ssec. XV.
T. I. p. 32).— Revelat. S. Brigittas Lib. vn. c. viii.
70 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
of Beziers, ISarbonne, and Carcassonne. Bertrand at first tried
persuasion. The outward sign of the Spirituals was the habit.
They wore smaller hoods, and gowns shorter, narrower, and coarser
than the Conventuals ; and, holding this to be in accordance with
the precedent set by Francis, it was as much an article of faith
with them as the absence of granaries and wine-cellars and the
refusal to handle money. When he urged them to abandon these
vestments they therefore replied that this was one of the matters
in which they could not render obedience. Then he assumed a
tone of authority under the papal rescript, and they rejoined by
an appeal to the pope better informed, signed by forty-five friars
of Narbonne, and fifteen of Beziers. On receipt of the appeal,
John peremptorily ordered, April 27, 1317, all the appellants to
present themselves before him within ten days, under pain of ex-
communication. They set forth, seventy -four in number, with
Bernard Delicieux at their head, and on reaching Avignon did not
venture to lodge in the Franciscan convent, but bivouacked for
the night on the public place in front of the papal doors.*
They were regarded as much more dangerous rebels than the
Italian Spirituals. The latter had already had a hearing in which
Ubertino da Casale confuted the charges brought against them,
and he, Goffrido da Cornone, and Philippe de Caux, while express-
ing sympathy and readiness to defend Olivi and his disciples, had
plainly let it be seen that they regarded themselves as not per-
sonally concerned with them. John drew the same distinction;
and though Angelo da Clarino was for a while imprisoned on the
strength of an old condemnation by Boniface VIII., he was soon
released and permitted to adopt the Celestin habit and Rule.
Ubertino was told that if he would return for a few days to the
Franciscan convent proper provision would be made for his fut-
ure. To this he significantly replied, "After staying with the
friars for a single day I will not require any provision in this
world from you or any one else," and he was permitted to trans-
fer himself to the Benedictine Order, as were likewise several
others of his comrades. He had but a temporary respite, how-
No. 9-14. — Hist. Tribulation. (Archiv far L. u. K.
ictor. Chron. ann. 1311, 1316 (Muratori S. R. I. III. n.
THE OLIVISTS PREJUDGED. 71
ever, and we shall see hereafter that in 1325 he was obliged to
take refuge with Louis of Bavaria.*
The Olivists were not to escape so easily. The day after their
arrival they were admitted to audience. Bernard Delicieux ar-
gued their case so ably that he could only be answered by accus-
ing him of having impeded the Inquisition, and John ordered his
arrest. Then Francois Sanche took up the argument, and was ac-
cused of having vilified the Order publicly, when John delivered
him to the Conventuals, who promptly imprisoned him in a cell
next to the latrines. Then Guillaume de Saint-Amand assumed
the defence, but the friars accused him of dilapidation and of de-
serting the Convent of Narbonne, and John ordered his arrest.
Then Geoffroi attempted it, but John interrupted him, saying,
"We wonder greatly that you demand the strict observance of
the Rule, and yet you wear five gowns." Geoffroi replied, " Holy
Father, you are deceived, for, saving your reverence, it is not true
that I wear five gowns." John answered hotly, " Then we lie,"
and ordered Geoffroi to be seized until it could be determined how
many gowns he wore. The terrified brethren, seeing that their
case was prejudged, fell on their knees, crying, " Holy Father, jus-
tice, justice !" and the pope ordered them all to go to the Francis-
can convent, to be guarded till he should determine what to do
with them. Bernard, Guillaume, and Geoffroi, and some of their
comrades were subjected to harsh imprisonment in chains by or-
der of the pope. Bernard's fate we have already seen. As to
the others, an inquisition was held on them, when all but twenty-
five submitted, and were rigorously penanced by the triumphant
Conventuals, f
The twenty-five recalcitrants were handed over to the Inquisi-
tion of Marseilles, under whose jurisdiction they were arrested.
The inquisitor was Frere Michel le Moine, one of those who had
been degraded and imprisoned by Clement V. on account of their
zeal in persecuting the Spirituals. ~Now he was able to glut his
revenge. He had ample warrant for whatever he might please to
do, for John had not waited to hear the Spirituals before condemn-
ing them. As early as February 17, he had ordered the inquisi-
* Hist. Tribulat. (ubi sup. pp. 143-44, 151-2).— Franz Ehrle, Archiv, 1887, p.
546.
f Hist. Tribulat. (Ibid. pp. 145-6).— Ray m. de Fronciacho (lb. 1887, p. 29).
72 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
tors of Languedoc to denounce as heretics all who styled them-
selves Fraticelli or Fratres de paupere vita. Then, April 13, he
had issued the constitution Quorumdam, in which he had definite-
ly settled the two points which had become the burning questions
of the dispute — the character of vestments to be worn, and the
legality of laying up stores of provisions in granaries, and cellars
of wine and oil. These questions he referred to the general of
the Order with absolute power to determine them. Under Mi-
chele's instructions, the ministers and guardians were to determine
for each convent what amount of provisions it required, what por-
tion might be stored up, and to what extent the friars were to beg
for it. Such decisions were to be implicitly followed without
thinking or asserting that they derogated from the Eule. The
bull wound up with the significant words, " Great is poverty,
but greater is blamelessness, and perfect obedience is the greatest
good." There was a hard common-sense about this which may
seem to us even commonplace, but it decided the case against the
Spirituals, and gave them the naked alternative of submission or
rebellion.*
This bull was the basis of the inquisitorial process against the
twenty-five recalcitrants. The case was perfectly clear under it,
and in fact all the proceedings of the Spirituals after its issue had
been flagrantly contumacious — their refusal to change their vest-
ments, and their appeal to the pope better informed. Before
handing them over to the Inquisition they had been brought be-
fore Michele da Cesena, and their statements to him when read
before the consistory had been pronounced heretical and the au-
thors subject to the penalty of heresy. Efforts of course had been
made to secure their submission, but in vain, and it was not until
November 6, 1317, that letters were issued by John and by Michele
da Cesena to the Inquisitor Michel, directing him to proceed with
the trial. Of the details of the process we have no knowledge,
but it is not likely that the accused were spared any of the rigors
customary in such cases, when the desire was to break the spirit
and induce compliance. This is shown, moreover, in the fact that
the proceedings were protracted for exactly six months, the sen-
tence being rendered on May 7, 1318, and by the further fact that
Coll. Doat, XXXIV. 147.— Extrav. Joann. XXII. Tit. xiv. cap. 1.
THE MARTYRS OF MARSEILLES. 73
most of the culprits were brought to repentance and abjuration.
Only four of them had the physical and mental endurance to per-
severe to the last — Jean Barrani, Deodat Michel, Guillem Sainton,
and Pons Rocha — and these were handed over the same day to the
secular authorities of Marseilles and duly burned. A fifth, Ber-
nard Aspa, who had said in prison that he repented, but who re-
fused to recant and abjure, was mercifully condemned to prison
for life, though under all inquisitorial rules he should have shared
the fate of his accomplices. The rest were forced to abjure pub-
licly and to accept the penances imposed by the inquisitor, with
the warning that if they failed to publish their abjuration wher-
ever they had preached their errors they would be burned as re-
lapsed.*
Although in the sentence the heresv of the victims is said to
have been drawn from the poisoned doctrine of Olivi, and though
the inquisitor issued letters prohibiting any one from possessing
or reading his books, there is no allusion to any Joachite error.
It was simply a question of disobedience to the bull Quorumdam.
They affirmed that this was contrary to the Gospel of Christ, which
forbade them to wear garments of other fashion than that which
they had adopted, or to lay up stores of corn and wine. To this
the pope had no authority to compel them ; the}T would not obey
him, and this they declared they would maintain until the Day of
Judgment. Frivolous as the questions at issue undoubtedly were,
it was on the one hand a case of conscience from which reason
had long since been banished by the bitterness of controversy,
and on the other the necessity of authority compelling obedience.
If private judgment were allowed to set aside the commands of a
papal decretal, the moral power of the papacy was gone, and with
it all temporal supremacy. Yet, underlying all this was the old
Joachitic leaven which taught that the Church of Rome had no
spiritual authority, and thus that its decrees were not binding on
the elect. When Bernard Delicieux was sent, in 1319, from Avi-
gnon to Castelnaudari for trial, on the road he talked freely with
his escort and made no secret of his admiration for Joachim, even
going so far as to say that he had erased from his copy of the
Decretum the Lateran canon condemning Joachim's Trinitarian
* Baluz. et Mansi II. 248-51.— Hist. Tribulat. (loc. cit, p. 147).
74 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
error, and that if he were pope he would abrogate it. The influ-
ence of the Everlasting Gospel is seen in the fact that of those
who recanted at Marseilles and were imprisoned, a number fled to
the Infidel, leaving behind them a paper in which they defiantly
professed their faith, and prophesied that they would return tri-
umphantly after the death of John XXII.*
Thus John, ere yet his pontificate was a year old, had succeed-
ed in creating a new heresy — that which held it unlawful for
Franciscans to wear flowing gowns or to have granaries and cellars.
In the multiform development of human perversity there has been
perhaps none more deplorably ludicrous than this, that man should
burn his fellows on such a question, or that men should be found
dauntless enough to brave the flames for such a principle, and to
feel that they were martyrs in a high and holy cause. John proba-
bly, from the constitution of his mind and his training, could not
understand that men could be so enamoured of holy poverty as to
sacrifice themselves to it, and he could only regard them as obsti-
nate rebels, to be coerced into submission or to pay the penalty.
He had taken his stand in support of Michele da Cesena's author-
ity, and resistance, whether active or passive, only hardened him.
The bull Quorumdam had created no little stir. A defence of
it, written by an inquisitor of Carcassonne and Toulouse, probably
Jean de Beaune, shows that its novel positions had excited grave
doubts in the minds of learned men, who were not convinced of its
orthodoxy, though not prepared to risk open dissent. There is also
an allusion to a priest who persisted in maintaining the errors
which it condemned and who was handed over to the secular arm,
* Raym. de Fronciacho (Archiv f. L. u. K. 1887, p. 31).— Baluz. et Mansi
II. 248-51, 271-2. — Joann. S.Victor. Chron. ann. 1319 (Muratori S. R. I. III. n.
478-9).— MSS. Bib. Nat., fonds latin, No. 4270, fol. 188, 262. Bernard, however,
in his examination, denied these allegations as well as Olivi's tenet that Christ
was alive when lanced upon the Cross, although he said some MSS. of St. Mark
so represented him (fol. 167-8).
Of the remainder of those who were tried at Marseille? the fate is uncertain.
From the text it appears that at least some of them were imprisoned. Others
were probably let off with lighter penances, for in 1325 Blaise Boerii, a shoe-
maker of Narbonne, when on trial before the Inquisition of Carcassonne, con-
fessed that he had visited, in houses at Marseilles, three of them at one time and
four at another, and had received them in his own house and had conducted
them on their way. — Doat, XXVII. 7 sqq.
POPULAR SYMPATHY. 75
but who recanted ere the fagots were lighted and was received to
penance. To silence discussion, John assembled a commission of
thirteen prelates and doctors, including Michele da Cesena, who
after due consideration solemnly condemned as heretical the prop-
ositions that the pope had no authority to issue the bull, and that
obedience was not due to prelates who commanded the laying
aside of short and narrow vestments and the storing up of corn
and wine. All this was rapidly creating a schism, and the bull
Sancta Romana, December 30, 1317, and Gloriosam ecclesiam, Jan-
uary 23, 1318, were directed against those who under the names of
Fraticelli, Beguines, Bizochi, and Fratres de paupere vita, in Sicily,
Italy, and the south of France, were organizing an independent
Order under the pretence of observing strictly the Kule of Francis,
receiving multitudes into their sect, building or receiving houses
in gift, begging in public, and electing superiors. All such are de-
clared excommunicate ipso facto, and all prelates are commanded
to see that the sect is speedily extirpated.*
Among the people, the cooler heads argued that if the Francis-
can vow rendered all possession sinful it was not a vow of holi-
ness, for in things in which use was consumption, such as bread
and cheese, use passed into possession. He who took such a vow,
therefore, by the mere fact of living broke that vow, and could not
be in a state of grace. The supreme holiness of poverty, however,
had been so assiduously preached for a hundred years that a large
portion of the population sympathized with the persecuted Spir-
ituals ; many laymen, married and unmarried, joined them as Ter-
tiaries, and even priests embraced their doctrines. There speedily
grew up a sect, by no means confined to Franciscans, to replace
the fast-vanishing Cathari as an object for the energies of the In-
quisition. It is the old story over again, of persecuted saints with
the familiars ever at their heels, but always finding refuge and
hiding-place at the hands of friendly sympathizers. Pierre Tren-
cavel, a priest of Beziers, may be taken as an example. His name
recurs frequently in the examinations before the Inquisition as that
of one of the principal leaders of the sect. Caught at last, he was
thrown into the prison of Carcassonne, but managed to escape,
* Baluz. et Mansi II. 270-1, 274-6.— Extravagant. Joann. XXII. Tit. vn.
Mag. Bull. Roman. I. 193.
76 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
when he was condemned in an auto defe as a convicted heretic.
Then a purse was raised among the faithful to send him to the
East. After an absence of some years he returned and was as
active as ever, wandering in disguise throughout the south of
France and assiduously guarded by the devotees. What was his
end does not appear, but he probably perished at length at the
stake as a relapsed heretic, for in 1327 we find him and his daugh-
ter Andree in the pitiless hands of Michel of Marseilles. Jean
du Prat, then Inquisitor of Carcassonne, wanted them, in order to
extort from them the names of their disciples and of those who
had sheltered them. Apparently Michel refused to surrender
them, and a peremptory order from John XXII. was requisite to
obtain their transfer. In 1325 Bernard Castillon of Montpellier
confesses to harboring a number of Beguines in his house, and then
to buying a dwelling for them in which he visited them. Another
culprit acknowledges to receiving many fugitives in his house at
Montpellier. There was ample sympathy for them and ample
occasion for it.*
The burning of the four martyrs of Marseilles was the signal
for active inquisitorial work. Throughout all the infected region
the Holy Office bent its energies to the suppression of the new
heresy ; and as previously there had been no necessity for conceal-
ing opinions, the suspects were readily laid hold of. There was
* Guill. Nangiac. Contin. ann. 1317.— Coll. Doat, XXVII. 7 sqq., 170 ; XXXV.
18.— Lib. Sententt. Inq. Tolos. pp. 301. 312, 381.
The case of Raymond Jean illustrates the life of the persecuted Spirituals.
As early as 1312 he had commenced to denounce the Church as the Whore of
Babylon, and to prophesy his own fate. In 1317 he was one of the appellants
who were summoned to Avignon, where he submitted. Remitted to the obedi-
ence of his Order, he was sent by his superior to the convent of Anduse, where he
remained until he heard the fate of his stancher companions at Marseilles, when
l.e fled with a comrade. Reaching Beziers, they found refuge in a house where,
in company with some female apostates from the Order, they lay hid for three
years. After this Raymond led a wandering life, associating for a while with
Pierre Trencavel. At one time he went beyond seas ; then returning, he adopted
the habit of a secular priest and assumed the cure of souls, sometimes in Gascony
and again in Rodez or east of the Rhone. Captured at last in 1325 and brought
before the Inquisition of Carcassonne, after considerable pressure he was induced
to recant. His sentence is not given, but doubtless it was perpetual imprison-
ment.—Doat, XXVII. 7 sqq.
UNSPARING PERSECUTION. 77
thus an ample harvest, and the rigor of the inquisition set on foot
is shown by the order issued in February, 1322, by John XXII.,
that all Tertiaries in the suspected districts should be summoned
to appear and be closely examined. This caused general terror.
In the archives of Florence there are preserved numerous letters
to the papal curia, written in February, 1322, by the magistrates
and prelates of the Tuscan cities, interceding for the Tertiaries, and
begging that they shall not be confounded with "the new sect of
Beguines. This is doubtless a sample of what was occurring
everywhere, and the all-pervading fear was justified by the daily
increasing roll of martyrs. The test was simple. It was whether
the accused believed that the pope had power to dispense with
vows, especially those of poverty and chastity. As we have seen,
it was a commonplace of the schools, which Aquinas proved beyond
cavil, that he had no such power, and even as recently as 1311
the Conventuals, in arguing before Clement V., had admitted that
no Franciscan could hold property or take a wife under command
from the pope ; but things had changed in the interval, and now
those who adhered to the established doctrine had the alternative
of recantation or the stake. Of course but a small portion of the
culprits had the steadfastness to endure to the end against the per-
suasive methods which the Inquisition knew so well how to employ,
and the number of the victims who perished shows that the sect
must have been large. Our information is scanty and fragmen-
tary, but we know that at Narbonne, where the bishops at first
endeavored to protect the unfortunates, until frightened by the
threats of the inquisitors, there were three burned in 1319, seventeen
in Lent, 1321, and several in 1322. At Montpellier, persecution
was already active in 1 319. At Lunel there were seventeen burned ;
at Beziers, two at one time and seven at another ; at Pezenas, sev-
eral, with Jean Formayron at their head ; in Gironde, a number in
1319 ; at Toulouse, four in 1322, and others at Cabestaing and Lo-
deve. At Carcassonne there were burnings in 1319, 1320, and 1321,
and Henri de Chamay was active there between 1325 and 1330.
A portion of his trials are still extant, with very few cases of burn-
ing, but Mosheim had a list of one hundred and thirteen persons
executed at Carcassonne as Spirituals from 1318 to about 1350.
All these cases were under Dominican inquisitors, and the Fran-
ciscans were even more zealous, if we may believe Wadding's boast
73 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
that in 1323 there were one hundred and fourteen burned by Fran-
ciscan inquisitors alone. The Inquisition at Marseilles, in fact,
which was in Franciscan hands, had the reputation of being exces-
sively severe with the recalcitrant brethren of the Order. In a
case occurring in 1329 Frere Guillem de Salvelle, the Guardian of
Beziers, states that their treatment there was very harsh and the
imprisonment of the most rigorous description. Doubtless Angelo
da Clarino has justification for the assertion that the Conventuals
improved their triumph over their antagonists like mad dogs and
wolves, torturing, slaying, and ransoming without mercy. Trivial
as may seem to us the cause of quarrel, we cannot but respect the
simple earnestness which led so many zealots to seal their convic-
tions with their blood. Many of them, we are told, courted mar-
tyrdom and eagerly sought the flames. Bernard Leon of Mon-
treal was burned for persistently declaring that, as he had vowed
poverty and chastity, he would not obey the pope if ordered to take
a wife or accept a prebend.*
Ferocious persecution such as this of course only intensified the
convictions of the sufferers and their antagonism to the Holy See.
So far as regards the ostensible subject of controversy, we learn
from Pierre Tort, when he was before the Inquisition of Toulouse
in 1322, that it was allowable to lay in stores of corn and wine
sufficient for eight or fifteen days, while of salt and oil there might
be provision for half a year. As to vestments, Michele da Cesena
had exercised the power conferred on him by the bull Quorumdam
by issuing, in 1317, a precept requiring the gown to be made of
coarse stuff, reaching down to cover only half the foot, while the
cord was to be of hemp and not of flax. Although he seems to
have left the burning question of the hood untouched, this regula-
tion might have satisfied reasonable scruples, but it was a case of
conscience which admitted of no compromise. The Spirituals de-
clared that they were not bound to abandon the still shorter and
# Raynald ann. 1322, No. 51. — Archivio di Firenze, Prov. del Convento di
Santa Croce, Feb. 1322. — S. Th. Aquin. Summ. Sec. Sec. Q. lxxxviii. Art. xi. ; Q.
clxxxvi. Art. viii. ad 3. — Franz Ehrle (Archiv fur Litt.- u. Kirchengeschichte,
1887, p. 156).— Lib. Sententt. Inq. Tolos. pp. 300, 313, 381-93.— Coll. Doat,
XXVII., XXVIIL— Mosheim de Beghardis pp. 499, 632.— Vaissette, IV. 182-3.—
Wadding, ann. 1317, No. 45.— Hist. Tribulat. (loc. cit. p. 149).— Arch, de 1' Inq.
de Carcass. (Doat, XXVII. 162).— Johann. S. Victor. Chron. ann. 1316-19.
REVIVAL OF JOACHITISM. 79
more ungainly gowns which their tradition attributed to St. Fran-
cis, no matter what might be commanded by pope or general, and
so large was the importance attributed to the question that in the
popular belief the four martyrs of Marseilles were burned because
they wore the mean and tightly-fitting garments which distin-
guished the Spirituals.*
Technically they were right, for, as we have seen above, it
had hitherto been generally admitted that the pope could not
dispense for vows ; and when Olivi developed this to the further
position that he could not order anything contrary to an evangeli-
cal vow, it was not reckoned among his errors condemned by the
Council of Yienne. While all this, however, had been admitted
as a theoretical postulate, when it came to be set up against the
commands of such a pope as John XXII. it was rebellious heresy,
to be crushed with the sternest measures. At the same time it
was impossible that the sufferers could recognize the authority
which was condemning them to the stake. Men who willingly
offered themselves to be burned because they asserted that the pope
had no power to dispense from the observance of vows ; who de-
clared that if there were but one woman in the world, and if she
had taken a vow of chastity, the pope could give her no valid dis-
pensation, even if it were to prevent the human race from coming
to an end ; who asserted that John XXII. had sinned against the
gospel of Christ when he had attempted to permit the Francis-
cans to have granaries and cellars ; who held that although the
pope might have power over other Orders he had none over that
of St. Francis, because his Rule was divine revelation, and not a
word in it could be altered or erased — such men could only defend
themselves against the pope by denying the source of his author-
ity. All the latent Joachitic notions which had been dormant were
vivified and became the leading principles of the sect. John
XXII. , when he issued the bull Quorumdam, became the mystical
Antichrist, the forerunner of the true Antichrist. The Roman
Church was the carnal Church ; the Spirituals would form the new
Church, which would fight with Antichrist, and, under the guidance
of the Holy Ghost, would usher in the new age when man would
* Lib. Sententt. Inq. Tolosan. pp. 320, 325.— Wadding, ann. 1317, No. 23.—
Coll. Doat, XXVII. 7 sqq.
80 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
be ruled by love and poverty be universal. Some of them placed
this in 1325, others in 1330, others again in fourteen years from
1321. Thus the scheme of the Everlasting Gospel was formally
adopted and brought to realization. There were two churches-
one the carnal Church of Home, the Whore of Babylon, the Syna-
gogue of Satan, drunk with the blood of the saints, over which
John XXII. pretended to preside, although he had forfeited his
station and become a heretic of heretics when he consented to the
death of the martyrs of Marseilles. The other was the true Church,
the Church of the Holy Ghost, which would speedily triumph
through the arms of Frederic of Trinacria. St. Francis would be
resurrected in the flesh, and then would commence the third age
and the seventh and last state of mankind. Meanwhile, the sacra-
ments were already obsolete and no longer requisite for salvation.
It is to this period of frenzied exaltation that we may doubtless
attribute the interpolations of Olivi's writings.*
This new Church had some sort of organization. In the trial of
Xaprous Boneta at Carcassonne, in 1325, there is an allusion to a
Frere Guillem Giraud, who had been ordained by God as pope in
place of John XXII. , whose sin had been as great as Adam's, and
who had thus been deposed by the divine will. There were not
lacking saints and martyrs, besides Francis and Olivi. Fragments
of the bodies and bones of those who perished at the stake were
treasured up as relics, and even pieces of the stakes at which they
suffered. These were set before altars in their houses, or carried
about the person as amulets. In this cult, the four martyrs of
Marseilles were pre-eminently honored ; their suffrages with God
were as potent as those of St. Laurence or St. Vincent, and in them
Christ had been spiritually crucified on the four arms of the cross.
One poor wretch, who was burned at Toulouse in 1322, had in-
serted in his litany the names of seventv Spirituals who had suf-
fered ; he invoked them among the other saints, attaching equal
importance to their intervention ; and this was doubtless a cus-
tomary and recognized form of devotion. Yet this cult was sim-
pler than that of the orthodox Church, for it was held that the
* Lib. Sententt. Inq. Tolosan. pp. 298-99. 302-6, 316.— Bern. Guidon. Prac-
lica P. v.— Doat, XXVII. 7 sqq.— Johann. S. Victor. Chron. ann. 1316-19 Olura-
tori S. R. I. III. ii. 478-9).
SUBDIVISION OF THE SECTARIES. 81
saints needed no oblations, and if a man had vowed a candle to one
of them or to the Virgin, or a pilgrimage to Compostella, it would
be better to give to the poor the money that it would cost.*
The Ghurch composed of these enthusiastic fanatics broke off
all relations with the Italian Spirituals, whose more regulated zeal
seemed lukewarmness and backsliding. The prisoners who were
tried by Bernard Gui in 1322 at Toulouse described the Franciscan
Order as divided into three fragments — the Conventuals, who
insisted on having granaries and cellars, the Fraticelli under Henry
da Ceva in Sicily, and the Spirituals, or Beguines, then under per-
secution. The two former groups they said did not observe the
Kule and would be destroyed, while their own sect would endure
to the end of the world. Even the saintly and long-suffering
Angelo da Clarino was denounced as an apostate, and there were
hot-headed zealots who declared that he would prove to be the
mystical Antichrist. Others were disposed to assign this doubt-
ful honor, or even the position of the greater Antichrist, to Felipe
of Majorca, brother of that Ferrand whom we have seen offered
the sovereignty of Carcassonne. Felipe's thirst for asceticism had
led him to abandon his brother's court and become a Tertiary of
St. Francis. Angelo alludes to him repeatedly, with great admi-
ration, as worthy to rank with the ancient perfected saints. In
the stormy discussions soon after John's accession he had inter-
vened in favor of the Spirituals, petitioning that they be allowed
to form a separate Order. After taking the full vows, he renewed
this supplication in 1328, but it was refused in full consistory, after
which we hear of him wandering over Europe and living on beg-
gary. In 1341, with the support of Robert of Naples, he made a
third application, which Benedict XII. rejected for the reason that
he was a supporter and defender of the Beguines, whom he had
justified after their condemnation by publicly asserting many
enormous heretical lies about the Holy See. Such were the men
whose self-devotion seemed to these fiery bigots so tepid as to ren-
der them objects of detestation.f
* Doat, XXVII. 7 sqq.— Lib; Sententt. Inq. Tolos. pp. 305, 307, 310, 383-5.-^-
Bern. Guidon. Practica P. v.
t Lib. Sententt. Inq. Tolos. pp. 303, 309, 326, 330.— Bern. Guidon. Practica
P. v.— Franz Ehrle (op. cit. 1885, pp. 540, 543, 557),— Ray in. de Fronciacho (lb.
III.— 6
g2 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
The heights of exaltation reached in their religious delirium
are illustrated by the career of Xaprous Boneta, who was rever-
enced in the sect as an inspired prophetess. As early as 1315 she
had fallen into the hands of the Inquisition at Hontpellier, and had
been thrown into prison, to be subsequently released. She and her
sister Alissette were warmly interested in the persecuted Spirituals,
and gave refuge to many fugitives in their house. As persecution
grew hotter, her exaltation increased. In 1320 she commenced to
have visions and ecstasies, in which she was carried to heaven and
had interviews with Christ. Finally, on Holy Thursday, 1321,
Christ communicated to her the Divine Spirit as completely as it
had been given to the Virgin, saying, " The Blessed Virgin Mary
was the giver of the Son of God : thou shalt be the giver of the
Holy Ghost." Thus the promises of the Everlasting Gospel were
on the point of fulfilment, and the Third Age was about to dawn.
Elijah, she said, was St. Francis, and Enoch was Olivi ; the power
granted to Christ lasted until God gave the Holy Spirit to Olivi,
and invested him with as much glory as had been granted to the
humanity of Christ. The papacy has ceased to exist, the sacra-
ments of the altar and of confession are superseded, but that of
matrimony remains. That of penitence, indeed, still exists, but it
is purely internal, for heartfelt contrition works forgiveness of
sins without sacerdotal intercession or the imposition of penance.
One remark, which she casually made when before her judges, is
noteworthy as manifesting the boundless love and charity of these
poor souls. The Spirituals and lepers, she said, who had been
burned were like the innocents massacred by Herod — it was Satan
who procured the burning of the Spirituals and lepers. This alludes
to the hideous cruelties which, as we have seen, were perpetrated
on the lepers in 1321 and 1322, when the whole of France went
mad with terror over a rumored poisoning of the wells by these
outcasts, and when, it seems, the Spirituals were wise enough and
humane enough to sympathize with them and condemn their mur-
der. Naprous, at length, was brought before Henri de Chamay,
1887, p. 29.— Guillel. Nangiac. Contin. ann. 1330.— Wadding, ann. 1341, No.
21, 23.
A subdivision of the Italian Fraticelli took the name of Brethren of Fray
Felipe de Mallorca (Tocco, Archivio Storico Napoletano, 1887, Fasc. 1).
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SECT. 33
the Inquisitor of Carcassonne, in 1325. Sincere in the belief of
her divine mission, she spontaneously and fearlessly related her
history and stated her faith, and in her replies to her examiners
she was remarkably quick and intelligent. When her confession
was read over to her she confirmed it, and to all exhortations to
retract she quietly answered that she would live and die in it as
the truth. She was accordingly handed over to the secular arm
and sealed her convictions with her blood.*
Extravagances of belief such as this were not accompanied with
extravagance of conduct. Even Bernard Gui has no fault to find
with the heretics' mode of life, except that the school of Satan
imitated the school of Christ, as laymen imitate like monkeys the
pastors of the Church. They all vowed poverty and led a life of
self-denial, some of them laboring with their hands and others beg-
ging by the wayside. In the towns and villages they had little
dwellings which they called Houses of Poverty, and where they
dwelt together. On Sundays and feast-days their friends would
assemble and all would listen to readings from the precepts and
articles of faith, the lives of the saints, and their own religious
books in the vulgar tongue — mostly the writings of Olivi, which
they regarded as revelations from God, and the " Transitus Sancti
Patris" which was a legendary account of his death. The only
external signs by which Bernard says they were to be recognized
were that on meeting one another, or entering a house, they would
say, " Blessed be Jesus Christ," or " Blessed be the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ." When praying in church or elsewhere they
sat with hooded heads and faces turned to the wall, not standing
or kneeling, or striking their hands, as was customary with the
orthodox. At dinner, after asking a blessing, one of them would
kneel and recite Gloria in excelsis, and after supper, Salve Regina.
This was all inoffensive enough, but they had one peculiarity to
which Bernard as an inquisitor took strong exceptions. When on
trial they were ready enough to confess their own faith, but noth-
ing would induce them to betray their associates. In their sim-
plicity they held that this would be a violation of Christian charity
to which they could not lawfully be compelled, and the inquisitor
wasted infinite pains in the endeavor to show that it is charity to
* Coll. Doat, XXVII. 7 sqq., 95.
81 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
one's neighbor, and not an injury, to give him a chance of con-
version.-
Evidently these poor folk would have been harmless enough
if let alone, and their persecution could only be justified by the
duty of the Church to preserve erring souls from perdition. A
sect based upon the absolute abnegation of property as its chief
principle, and the apocalyptic reveries of the Everlasting Gospel,
could never become dangerous, though it might be disagreeable,
from its mute — or perhaps vivacious — protest against the luxury
and Avorldliness of the Church. Even if let alone it would prob-
ably soon have died out. Springing as it did in a region and at a
period in which the Inquisition was thoroughly organized, it had
no chance of survival, and it speedily succumbed under the fero-
cious energy of the proceedings brought to bear against it. Yet
we cannot fix with any precision the date of its extinction. The
records are imperfect, and those which we possess fail to draw a
distinction between the Spirituals and the orthodox Franciscans,
who, as we shall see, Avere driven to rebellion by John XXII. on the
question of the poverty of Christ. This latter dogma became one
of so much larger importance that the dreams of the Spirituals
were speedily lost to view, and in the later cases it is reasonable to
assume that the victims were Fraticelli. Still, there are several
prosecutions on record at Carcassonne in 1329, which were doubt-
less of Spirituals. One of them was of Jean Eoger, a priest who
had stood in high consideration at Beziers ; he had been an asso-
ciate of Pierre Trencavel in his wanderings, and the slight penance
imposed on him would seem to indicate that the ardor of persecu-
tion was abating, though we learn that the bones of the martyrs
of Marseilles were still handed around as relics. John XXII. was
not disposed to connive at any relaxation of rigor, and in Febru-
ary, 1331, he reissued his bull Sancta Rornana, with a preface ad-
dressed to bishops and inquisitors in which he assumes that the sect
is flourishing as vigorously as ever, and orders the most active meas-
ures taken for its suppression. Doubtless there Avere subsequent
prosecutions, but the sect as a distinctive one faded out of sight.f
During the period of its actiAre existence it had spread across
* Bern. Guidon. Practica P. v. f Doat, XXVII. 156, 170, 178, 215 ; XXXII. 147.
PERSECUTION IN ARAGON. 85
the Pyrenees into Aragon. Even before the Council of Beziers,
in 1299, took official cognizance of the nascent heresy, the bishops
of Aragon, assembled at Tarragona in 1297, instituted repressive
measures against the Begumes who were spreading errors through-
out the kingdom, and all Franciscan Tertiaries were subjected to
supervision. Their books in the vulgar tongue were especially
dreaded, and were ordered to be surrendered. These precautions
did not avert the evil. As we have seen, Arnaldo de Vilanova
became a Avarm advocate of the Spirituals ; his indefatigable pen
was at their service, his writings had wide circulation, and his in-
fluence with Jayme II. protected them. With his death and that
of Clement V. persecution commenced. Immediately after the
latter event, in 1314, the Inquisitor Bernardo de Puycerda, one of
Arnaldo's special antagonists, undertook their suppression. At
their head stood a certain Pedro Oler, of Majorca, and Fray Bo-
nato. They were obstinate, and were handed over to the secular
arm, when all were burned except Bonato, who recanted on being
scorched by the flames. He was dragged from the burning pile,
cured, and condemned to perpetual imprisonment, but after some
twenty years he was found to be still secretly a Spiritual, and was
burned as a relapsed in 1335. Emboldened by the accession of
John XXIL, in November, 1316, Juan de Llotger, the inquisitor,
and Jofre de Cruilles, provost of the vacant see of Tarragona,
called together an assembly of Dominicans, Franciscans, and Cis-
tercians, who condemned the apocalyptic and spiritualistic writ-
ings of Arnaldo, which were ordered to be surrendered within ten
days under pain of excommunication. The persecution continued.
Duran de Baldach was burned as a Spiritual, with a disciple, in 1325.
About the same time John XXIL issued several bulls command-
ing strict inquisition to be made for them throughout Aragon,
Valencia, and the Balearic Isles, and subjecting them to the juris-
diction of the bishops and inquisitors in spite of any privileges or
immunities which they might claim as Franciscans. The heresy,
however, seems never to have obtained any firm foothold on Span-
ish soil. Yet it penetrated even to Portugal, for Alvaro Pelayo
tells us that there were in Lisbon some pseudo-Franciscans who
applauded the doctrine that Peter and his successors had not re-
ceived from Christ the power which he held on earth.*
* Concil. Tarraconens. ann. 1297 c. 1-4 (Martene Ampl. Coll. VII. 305-6).—
86 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
A somewhat different development of the Joachitic element is
seen in the Franciscan Juan de Pera-Tallada or de Pupescissa,
better known perhaps through Froissart as Jean de la Eoche-
taillade. As a preacher and missionary he stood pre-eminent, and
his voice was heard from his native Catalonia to distant Moscow.
Somewhat given to occult science, various treatises on alchemy
have been attributed to him, among which Pelayo tells us that
it is difficult to distinguish the genuine from the doubtful. Xot
only in this did he follow Arnaldo de Yilanova, but in mercilessly
lashing the corruptions of the Church, and in commenting on the
prophecies of the pseudo-Joachim. No man of this school seemed
able to refrain from indulging in prophecy himself, and Juan
gained wide reputation by predictions which were justified by the
event, such as the battle of Poitiers and the Great Schism. Per-
haps this might have been forgiven had he not also foretold that
the Church would be stripped of the superfluities which it had so
shockingly abused. One metaphor which he employed was largely
quoted. The Church, he said, was a bird born without feathers,
to which all other fowls contributed plumage, which they would
reclaim in consequence of its pride and tyranny. Like the Spirit-
uals he looked fondly back to the primitive days before Const an-
tine, when in holy poverty the foundations of the faith were laid.
He seems to have steered clear of the express heresy as to the pov-
erty of Christ, and when he came to Avignon, in 1319, to proclaim
his views, although several attempts to burn him were ineffectual,
he was promptly thrown into jail. He was " durement grand clerc"
and his accusers were unable to convict him, but he was too dan-
gerous a man to be at large, and he. was kept in confinement.
"When he was finally liberated is not stated, but if Pelayo is cor-
rect in saying that he returned home at the age of ninety he must
have been released after a long incarceration.*
Eymeric. pp. 265-6. — Raynald. ann. 1325, No. 20. — Mosheim de Beghardis p.
641.— Pelayo, Heterodoxos Espanoles, I. 777-81, 783.— For the fate of Arnaldo
de Vilanova's writings in the Index Expurgatorius, see Reusch, Der Index der
verbotenen Biicher, I. 33-4. Two of the tracts condemned in 1316 have been
found, translated into Italian, in a MS. of the Magliabecchian Library, by Prof.
Tocco, who describes them in the Archivio Storico Italiano, 1886, No. 6, and in
the Giornale Storico della Lett. Ital. VIII. 3.
* Pelayo, Heterodoxos Espanoles, I. 500-2. — Jo. de Rupesciss. Vade raecum
JUAN DE PERA-TALLADA. §7
The ostensible cause of his punishment was his Joachitic spec-
ulation as to Antichrist, though, as Wadding observes, many holy
men did the same without animadversion, like St. Vicente Ferrer,
who in 1412 not only predicted Antichrist, but asserted that he
was already nine years old, and who was canonized, not persecuted.
Milicz of Cremsier also, as Ave have seen, though persecuted, was
acquitted. Fray Juan's reveries, however, trenched on the borders
of the Everlasting Gospel, although keeping within the bounds of
orthodoxy. In his prison, in November, 1349, he wrote out an
account of a miraculous vision vouchsafed him in 1345, in return
for continued prayer and maceration. Louis of Bavaria was the
Antichrist who would subjugate Europe and Africa in 1366, while
a similar tyrant would arise in Asia. Then would come a schism
with two popes ; Antichrist would lord it over the whole earth
and many heretical sects would arise. After the death of Anti-
christ would follow fifty-five years of war ; the Jews would be
converted, and with the destruction of the kingdom of Antichrist
the Millennium would open. Then the converted Jews would pos-
sess the world, all would be Tertiaries of St. Francis, and the
Franciscans would be models of holiness and poverty. The her-
etics would take refuge in inaccessible mountains and the islands
of the sea, whence they would emerge at the close of the Millen-
nium ; the second Antichrist would appear and bring a period of
great suffering, until fire would fall from heaven and destroy him
and his followers, after which would follow the end of the world
and the Day of Judgment.*
Meditation in prison seems to have modified somewhat his pro-
phetic vision, and in 1356 he wrote his Vade mecum in Tribula-
tione, in which he foretold that the vices of the clergy would lead
to the speedy spoliation of the Church ; in six years it would be
reduced to a state of apostolical poverty, and by 1370 would com-
mence the process of recuperation which would bring all mankind
under the domination of Christ and of his earthly representative
(Fascic. Rer. Expetend. et Fugiend. II. 497).— Froissart, Liv. I. P. ii. ch. 124
Liv. in. ch. 27.— Rolewink Fascic. Temp. ann. 1364.— Mag. Chron. Belgic. (Pis
torii III. 336).— Meyeri Anna!. Flandr. ann. 1359. — Henr. Rebdorff. Annal. ann
1351.— Paul ^Emylii de Reb. Gest. Francor. (Ed. 1569, pp. 491-2).— M. Flac
Illyr. Cat. Test. Veritat. Lib. xvnr. p. 1786 (Ed. 1608).
* Wadding, ann. 1357, No. 17.— Pelayo, op. cit. I. 501-2.
88 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.
During the interval there would be a succession of the direst calam-
ities. From 1360 to 1365 the worms of the earth would arise and
destroy all beasts and birds ; tempest and deluge and earthquake,
famine and pestilence and war would sweep away the wicked ; in
1365 Antichrist would come, and such multitudes would apostatize
that but few faithful would be left. His reign would be short,
and in 1370 a pope canonically elected would bring mankind to
Christianity, after which all cardinals would be chosen from the
Greek Church. During these tribulations the Franciscans would
be nearly exterminated, in punishment for their relaxation of the
Rule, but the survivors would be reformed and the Order would
fill the earth, innumerable as the stars of heaven ; in fact, two
Franciscans of the most abject poverty were to be the Elias and
Enoch who would conduct the Church through that disastrous
time. Meanwhile he advised that ample store should be made in
mountain caves of beans and honey, salt meats, and dried fruits by
those who desired to live through the convulsions of nature and soci-
ety. After the death of Antichrist would come the Millennium ; for
seven hundred years, or until about a.d. 2000, mankind would be
virtuous and happy, but then would come a decline : existing vices,
especially among the clergy, would be revived, preparatory to the
advent of Gog and Magog, to be followed by the final Antichrist.
It shows the sensitiveness of the hierarchy that this harmless
nympholepsy was deemed worthy of severe repression.*
The influence of the Everlasting Gospel was not yet wholty
exhausted. I have alluded above to Thomas of Apulia, who in
1388 insisted on preaching to the Parisians that the reign of the
Holy Ghost had commenced, and that he was the divinely com-
missioned envoy sent to announce it, when his mission was hu-
manely cut short by confining him as a madman. Singularly
identical in all but the result was the career of Nicholas of Buldes-
dorf, who, about 1445, proclaimed that God had commanded him to
announce that the time of the New Testament had passed away,
as that of the Old had done ; that the Third Era and Seventh Age
of the world had come, under the reign of the Holy Ghost, when
man would be restored to the state of primal innocence ; and that
he was the Son of God deputed to spread the glad tidings. To
* Fascic. Rer. Expetend. et Fugiend. II. 494-508.
ECHOES OF JOACHITISM. 89
the council still sitting at Basle he sent various tracts containing
these doctrines, and he finally had the audacity to appear before
it in person. His writings were promptly consigned to the flames
and he was imprisoned. Every effort was made to induce him to
recant, but in vain. The Basilian fathers were less considerate of
insanity than the Paris doctors, and Nicholas perished at the stake
in 1446.*
A last echo of the Everlasting Gospel is heard in the teaching
of two brothers, John and Lewin of Wiirzburg, who in 1466 taught
in Eger that all tribulations were caused by the wickedness of the
clergy. The pope was Antichrist, and the cardinals and prelates
were his members. Indulgences were useless and the ceremonies
of the Church were vanities, but the time of deliverance was at
hand. A man was already born of a virgin, who was the anoint-
ed of Christ and would speedily come with the third Evangel
and bring all the faithful into the fold. The heresy was rapidly
and secretly spreading among the people, when it was discovered
by Bishop Henry of Ratisbon. The measures taken for its sup-
pression are not recorded, and the incident is only of interest as
showing how persistently the conviction reappeared that there
must be a final and higher revelation to secure the happiness of
man in this world and his salvation in the next.f
* Fiiesslius neue u. unpartheyische Kirchen- u. Ketzerhistorie, Frankfurt,1772,
II. 63-66.
f Chron. Glassberger ann. 1466 (Analecta Franciscana II. 422-6).
CHAPTEE II.
GUGLIELMA AND DOLCINO.
The spiritual exaltation which produced among the Franciscans
the developments described in the last chapter was by no means
confined to the recognized members of that Order. It manifested
itself in even more irregular fashion in the little group of sectaries
known as Guglieimites, and in the more formidable demonstration
of the Dolcinists, or Apostolic Brethren.
About the year 1260 there came to Milan a woman calling
herself Guglielma. That she brought with her a son shows that
she had lived in the world, and was doubtless tried with its vicissi-
tudes, and as the child makes no further appearance in her history,
he probably died young. She had wealth, and was said to be the
daughter of Constance, queen and wife of the King of Bohemia.
Her royal extraction is questionable, but the matter is scarce worth
the discussion which it has provoked.* She was a woman of pre-
eminent piety, who devoted herself to good works, without prac-
tising special austerities, and she gradually attracted around her a
little band of disciples, to whom such of her utterances as have
been recorded show that she gave wholesome ethical instruction.
* Constance, daughter of Bela III. of Hungary, was second wife of Ottokar I.
of Bohemia, who died in 1230 at the age of eighty. She died in 1240, leaving
three daughters, Agnes, who founded the Franciscan convent of St. Januarius
in Prague, which she entered May 18, 1236; Beatrice, who married Otho the
Pious, of Brandenburg, and Ludomilla, who married Louis I. of Bavaria. Gugli-
elma can scarce have been either of these (Art de Ver. les Dates, VIII. 17).
Her disciple, Andrea Saramita, testified that after her death he journeyed to
Bohemia to obtain reimbursement of certain expenses; he failed in his errand,
but verified her relationship to the royal house of Bohemia (Andrea Ogniben, I
Guglielmiti del Secolo XIII., Perugia, 1867, pp. 10-11). — On the other hand, a
German contemporary chronicler asserts that she came from England (Annal.
Dominican. Colmariens. ann. 1301— Urstisii III. 33).
THE GUGLIELM1TES. 91
They adopted the style of plain broAvn garment which she habitu-
ally wore, and seem to have formed a kind of unorganized congre-
gation, bound together only by common devotion to her.*
At that period it was not easy to set bounds to veneration ; the
spiritual world was felt to be in the closest relation with the ma-
terial, and the development of Joachitism shows how readily re-
ceived were suggestions that a great change was impending, and a
new era about to open for mankind. Guglielma's devotees came
to regard her as a saint, gifted with thaumaturgic power. Some
of her disciples claimed to be miraculously cured by her — Dr.
Giacobbe da Ferno of an ophthalmic trouble, and Albertono de'
Novati of a fistula. Then it was said that she had received the
supereminent honor of the Stigmata, and although those who pre-
pared her body for the grave could not see them, this was held to
be owing to their unworthiness. It was confidently predicted
that she would convert the Jews and Saracens, and bring all man-
kind into unity of faith. At last, about 1276, some of the more
enthusiastic disciples began to whisper that she was the incarna-
tion of the Holy Ghost, in female form — the Third Person of the
Trinity, as Christ was of the Second, in the shape of a man. She
was very God and very man ; it was not alone the body of Christ
which suffered in the Passion, but also that of the Holy Ghost, so
that her flesh was the same as that of Christ. The originators of
this strange belief seem to have been Andrea Saramita, a man of
standing in Milan, and Suor Maifreda di Pirovano, an Umiliata of
the ancient convent of Biassono, and a cousin of Matteo Yisconti.
There is no probability that Guglielma countenanced these absurd
stories. Andrea Saramita was the only witness who asserted that
he had them from her direct, and he had a few days before testified
to the contrary. The other immediate disciples of Guglielma stated
that she made no pretensions to any supernatural character. When
people would ask her to cure them or relieve them of trouble she
would say, " Go, I am not God." When told of the strange beliefs
entertained of her she strenuously asserted that she was only a
miserable woman and a vile worm. Marchisio Secco, a monk of
Chiaravalle, testified that he had had a dispute with Andrea on
the subject, and they agreed to refer it to her, when she indig-
* Ogniben, op. cit. pp. 56, 73-5, 103-4.
92 GUGLIELMA AND DOLCINO.
nantly replied that she was flesh and bone, that she had brought
a son with her to Milan, and that if they did not do penance tor
uttering" such words thev would be condemned to hell. Yet, to
minds familiar with the promises of the Everlasting Gospel, it
might well seem that the era of the Holy Ghost would be ushered
in with such an incarnation."
Guglielma died August 24, 1381, leaving her property to the
great Cistercian house of Chiaravalle, near Milan, where she de-
sired to be buried. There was war at the time between Milan and
Lodi ; the roads were not safe, and she was temporarily interred in
the city, while Andrea and Dionisio Cotta went to the Marquis of
Montferrat to ask for an escort of troops to accompany the cortege.
The translation of the body took place in October, and was con-
ducted with great splendor. The Cistercians welcomed the oppor-
tunity to add to the attractions and revenues of their establish-
ment. At that period the business of exploiting new saints was
exceedingly profitable, and was prosecuted with corresponding
energy. Salimbene complains bitterly of it in referring to a
speculation made in 1279, at Cremona, out of the remains of a
drunken vintner named Alberto, whose cult brought crowds of
devotees with offerings, to the no small gain of all concerned.
Such things, as we have seen in the case of Armanno Pongilupo
and others, were constantly occurring, though Salimbene declares
that the canons forbade the veneration of any one, or picturing
him as a saint, until the Roman Church had authoritatively passed
upon his claims. In this Salimbene was mistaken. Zanghino
Ugolini, a much better authority, assures us that the worship of
uncanonized saints was not heretical, if it were believed that their
miracles were worked by God at their intercession, but if it were
believed that they were worked by the relics without the assent
of God, then the Inquisition could intervene and punish ; but so
long as a saint was uncanonized his cult was at the discretion of
the bishop, who could at any time command its cessation, and the
* Ogniben. op. cit. pp. 12. 20-1, 35-7. 69. 70. 74, 76, 82, 84-6, 101, 104-6, 116.
Dr. Andrea Ogniben, to whom we are indebted for the publication of the
fragmentary remains of the trial of the Guglielmites, thinks that Maifreda di
Pirovano was a cousin of Matteo Visconti, through his mother, Anastasia di
Pirovano (op. cit. p. 23). The Continuation of Nangis calls her his half-sister
(Guillel. Nangiac. Contin. ann. 1317).
THE GUGLIELMITES. 93
mere fact that miracles were performed was no evidence, as they
are frequently the work of demons to deceive the faithful.*
In this case the Archbishop of Milan offered no interference,
and the worship of Guglielma was soon firmly established. A
month after the translation Andrea had the body exhumed and
carried into the church, where he washed it with wine and water
and arrayed it in a splendid embroidered robe. The washings
were carefully preserved, to be used as a chrism for the sick ; they
were placed on the altar of the nunnery of Biassono, and Maifreda
employed them in anointing the affected parts of those who came
to be healed. Presently a chapel with an altar arose over her
tomb, and tradition still points out at Chiaravalle the little oratory
where she is said to have lain, and a portrait on the wall over the
vacant tomb is asserted to be hers. It represents her as kneeling
before the Virgin, to wdiom she is presented by St. Bernard, the
patron of the abbey ; a crowd of other figures is around her, and
the whole indicates that those who dedicated it to her represented
her as merely a saint, and not as an incarnation of the Godhead.
Another picture of her was placed by Dionisio Cotta in the
Church of St. Maria fuori di Porta Nuova, and two lamps were
kept burning before it to obtain her suffrage for the soul of his
brother interred there. Other pictures were hung in the Church
of S. Eufemia and in the nunnery of Biassono. In all this the good
monks of Chiaravalle were not remiss. They kept lighted lamps
before her altar. Two feast-days wTere assigned to her — the anni-
versaries of her death and of her translation — when the devotees
would assemble at the abbey, and the monks would furnish a
simple banquet, outside of the walls — for the Cistercian rules for-
bade the profanation of a woman's presence within the sacred
enclosure — and some of the monks would discourse eloquently upon
the saintliness of Guglielma, comparing her to other saints and to
the moon and stars, and receiving such oblations as the piety of
the worshippers would offer. Nor was this the only gain to the
abbey. Giacobbe de' JNovati, one of the believers, belonged to one
of the noblest families of Milan, and at his castle the Guglielmites
* Ogniben, op. cit. pp. 30,44, 115.— Salimbene Chronica, pp. 274-6.— Chron.
Parmens. aim. 1279 (Muratori S. K. I. IX. 791-2).— Zanchini Tract, de Hseret. c.
xxii.
94 GUGLIELMA AND DOLCINO.
were wont to assemble. When he died he instituted the abbey
as his heir, and the inheritance could not have been inconsider-
able. There were, doubtless, other instances of similar liberality
of which the evidences have not reached us.*
All this was innocent enough, but within the circle of those
who worshipped Guglielma there was a little band of initiated
who believed in her as the incarnation of the Holy Ghost. The
history of the Joachites has shown us the readiness which existed
to look upon Christianity as a temporary phase of religion, to
be shortly succeeded by the reign of the Holy Ghost, when the
Church of Rome would give place to a new and higher organiza-
tion. It was not difficult, therefore, for. the Guglielmites to per-
suade themselves that they had enjoyed the society of the Para-
clete, who was shortly to appear, when the Holy Spirit would be
received in tongues of flame by the disciples, the heathen and the
Jew would be converted, and there would be a new church usher-
ing in the era of love and blessedness, for which man had been
sighing through the weary centuries. Of this doctrine Andrea
was chief apostle. He claimed to be the first and only spiritual
son of Guglielma, from whom he had received the revelation, and
he embroidered it to suit the credulity of the disciples. The Arch-
angel Raphael had announced to the blessed Constance the incar-
nation in her of the Holy Ghost ; a year afterwards, Guglielma
was born on the holy day of Pentecost ; she had chosen the form
of a woman, for if she had come as man she would have died like
Christ, and the whole world would have perished. On one occa-
sion, in her chamber, she had changed a chair into an ox, and had
told him to hold it if he could, but when he attempted to do so it
disappeared. The same indulgences were obtainable by visiting
her tomb at Chiaravalle as by a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre.
Wafers which had been consecrated by laying them on the tomb
were eagerly partaken of by the disciples, as a new form of com-
munion. Besides the two regular feast-days, there was a third for
the initiated, significantly held on Pentecost, the day when she
was expected to reappear. Meanwhile, the devotion of the faith-
ful was stimulated by stories of her being in communication with
* Ogniben, op. cit. pp. 20-1, 25-6, 31, 36, 49-50, 56-7, 61, 72-3, 74, 93-4, 104,
116.— Tamburini, Storia dell' Inquisizione, II. 17-18.
THE GUGLIELMITES. 95
her representatives, both in her own form and in that of a dove.
How slight wras the evidence required for believers was seen in an
incident which gave them great comfort in 1293. At a banquet
in the house of Giacobbe da Ferno, a warm discussion arose be-
tween those who doubted and those whose convictions were
decided. Carabella, wife of Amizzone Toscano, one of the earnest
believers, was sitting on her mantle, and when she arose she found
three knots in the cords which had not been there before. This
was at once pronounced a great miracle, and was evidently re-
garded as a full confirmation of the truth.*
If it were not for the tragedy which followed there would be
nothing to render Guglielmitism other than a jest, for the Church
which was to replace the massive structure of Latin Christianity
was as ludicrous in its conception as these details of its faith. The
Gospels were to be replaced by sacred writings produced by An-
drea, of which he had already prepared several, in the names of
some of the initiated — " The Epistle of Sibilia to the JNTovaresi,"
" The Prophecy of Carmeo the Prophet to all Cities and Nations,"
and an account of Guglielma's teachings commencing, "In that
time the Holy Ghost said to his disciples." Maifreda also com-
posed litanies of the Holy Ghost and prayers for the use of the
Church. When, on the second advent of Guglielma, the papacy
was to pass away, Maifreda was to become pope, the vicar of the
Holy Ghost, with the keys of heaven and hell, and baptize the
Jew and the Saracen. A new college of cardinals was to be formed,
of whom only one appears to have been selected — a girl named
Taria, who, to judge from her answers when before the Inquisi-
tion, and the terms of contempt in which she is alluded to by some
of the sect, was a worthy representative of the whole absurd
scheme. While awaiting her exaltation to the papacy Maifreda
wTas the object of special veneration. The disciples kissed her
hands and feet, and she gave them her blessing. It was probably
the spiritual excitement caused by the jubilee proclaimed by Boni-
face VIII. , attracting pilgrims to Rome by the hundred thousand
to gain the proffered indulgences, which led the Guglielmites to
name the Pentecost of 1300 for the advent of the Holy Ghost.
With a curious manifestation of materialism, the worshippers pre-
# Ogniben, op. cit pp. 21, 25, 30, 36, 55. 70, 72, 96.101.
96 GUGLIELMA ASD DOLCINO.
pared splendid garments for the adornment of the expected God —
a purple mantle with a silver clasp costing thirty pounds of ter-
zioli, gold-embroidered silks and gilt slippers — while Pietra de' Al~
zate contributed forty -two dozen pearls, and Catella de' Giorgi
gave an ounce of pearls. In preparation for her new and holy
functions, Maifreda undertook to celebrate the mysteries of the
mass. During the solemnities of Easter, in sacerdotal vestments,
she consecrated the host, while Andrea in a dalmatic read the
Gospel, and she administered communion to those present. When
should come the resurrection of Guglielma, she was to repeat the
ceremony in S. Maria Maggiore, and the sacred vessels were al-
ready prepared for this, on an extravagant scale, costing more
than two hundred lire."
The sums thus lavished show that the devotees belonged to
the wealthy class. AVhat is most noteworthy, in fact, in the whole
story, is that a belief so absurd should have found acceptance
among men of culture and intelligence, showing the spirit of un-
rest that was abroad, and the readiness to accept any promise,
however wild, of relief from existing evils. There were few more
prominent families in Milan than the Garbagnati, who were Ghibel-
lines and closely allied with the Visconti. Gasparo Garbagnate
filled many positions of importance, and though his name does not
appear among the sectaries, his wife Benvenuta was one of them,
as well as his two sons, Ottorino and Francesco, and Bella, the
wife of Giacobbe. Francesco was a man of mark as a diplomat
and a lawyer. Sent by Matteo Yisconti in 1309 on a mission to
the Emperor Henry TIL, he won high favor at the imperial court
and obtained the objects for which he had been despatched. He
ended his career as a professor of jurisprudence in the renowned
University of Padua. Yet this man, presumably learned and cool-
headed, was an ardent disciple, who purchased gold-embroidered
silks for the resurrection of Guglielma, and composed prayers in
her honor. One of the crimes for which Matteo was condemned
in 1323 by the Inquisition was retaining in his service this Fran-
cesco Garbagnate, who had been sentenced to wear crosses for his
participation in the Guglielmite heresy ; and when John XXII., in
* Ogniben, op. cit. pp. 17, 20, 22, 23, 30, 34, 37, 40, 42, 47, 54, 62, 72, 80, 90,
94, 96.
THE GUGLIELMITES. 97
1324:, confirmed the sentence, he added that Matteo had terrorized
the inquisitors to save his son Galeazzo, who was also a Gugliel-
mite.*
When the heresy became known popular rumor of course at-
tributed to it the customary practices of indiscriminate sexual in-
dulgence which were ascribed to all deviations from the faith.
In the legend which was handed down by tradition there appears
the same story as to its discovery which we have seen told at
Cologne about the Brethren of the Free Spirit — of the husband
tracking his wife to the nocturnal rendezvous, and thus learning
the obscene practices of the sect. In this case the hero of the
tale is Corrado Coppa, whose wife Giacobba was an earnest be-
liever, f It is sufficient to say that the official reports of the trial,
in so far as they have reached us, contain no allusions whatever
to any licentious doctrines or practices. The inquisitors wasted
no time on inquiries in that direction, showing that they knew
there was nothing of the kind to reward investigation.
Numerically speaking, the sect was insignificant. It is men-
tioned that on one occasion, at a banquet in honor of Guglielma,
given by the monks of Chiaravalle, there were one hundred and
twenty -nine persons present, but these doubtless included many
who only reverenced her as a saint. The inner circle of the ini-
tiated was apparently much smaller. The names of those incul-
pated in the confessions before the Inquisition amount only to
about thirty, and it is fair to assume that the number of the sec-
taries at no time exceeded thirty-five or forty 4
It is not to be supposed that this could go on for nearly twenty
years and wholly escape the vigilance of the Milanese inquisitors.
In 1284, but a few years after Guglielma's death, two of the dis-
ciples, Allegranza and Carabella, incautiously revealed the myste-
ries of their faith to Belfiore, mother of Fra Enrico di Nova, who
at once conveyed it to the inquisitor, Fra Manfredo di Dona via.
Andrea was forthwith summoned, with his wife Riccadona, his
sister, Migliore, and his daughter, Fiord ebellina ; also Maifreda,
* Ogniben, op. cit. pp. 65-7, 83-4, 90-1, 110.— Ughelli, T. IV. pp. 286-93 (Ed.
1652).— Raynald. ann. 1324, No. 7-11.
t Philip. Bergomat. Supplem. Chron. ann. 1298.— Bern. Corio Hist, Milanes.
ann. 1300.
I Ogniben, op. cit. pp. 1, 2, 34, 74, 110.— Tainburini, op. cit. II. 67-8.
III.— 7
98 GUGLIELMA AND DOLCINO.
Bellacara de' Carentani, Giacobba dei Bassani, and possibly some
others. They readily abjured and were treated with exceptional
mildness, for Fra Manfredo absolved them by striking them over
the shoulders with a stick, as a symbol of the scourging which as
penitents they had incurred. He seems to have attached little
importance to the matter, and not to have compelled them to
reveal their accomplices. Again, in 1295 and 1296, there was an
investigation made by the Inquisitor Fra Tommaso di Como, of
which no details have reached us, but which evidently left the
leaders unharmed.*
We do not know what called the attention of the Inquisition to
the sect in the spring of 1300, but we may conjecture that the ex-
pected resurrection of Guglielma at the coming Pentecost, and the
preparations made for that event, caused an agitation among the
disciples leading possibly to incautious revelations. About Easter
(April 10) the inquisitors summoned and examined Maifreda, Gia-
cobba dei Bassani, and possibly some others, but without result.
Apparently, however, they were watched, secret information was
gathered, and in July the Holy Office was ready to strike effec-
tively. On July 18 a certain Fra Ghirardo presented himself to
Lanfranco de' Amizzoni and revealed the whole affair, with the
names of the principal disciples. Andrea sought him out and en-
deavored to learn what he had said, but was merely told to look
to himself, for the inquisitors were making many threats. On the
20th Andrea was summoned ; his assurances that he had never
heard that Guglielma was regarded -as more than an ordinary
saint were apparently accepted, and he was dismissed with or-
ders to return the next day and meanwhile to preserve absolute
secrecy, f
Andrea and Maifreda were thoroughly frightened ; they begged
the disciples, if called before the inquisitors, to preserve silence
with regard to them, as otherwise they could not escape death.
It is a peculiar illustration of the recognized hostility between the
two Mendicant Orders that the first impulse was to seek assist-
ance from the Franciscans. Xo sooner were the citations issued
than Andrea, with the Doctor Beltramo da Ferno, one of the ear-
* Ogniben, pp. 14, 23, 33, 36, 39, 60, 72, 101, 110, 114.
t Ibid. pp. 13,30-33,39.
THE GUGLIELMITES. 99
nest believers, went to the Franciscan convent, where they learned
from Fra Daniele da Ferno that Fra Guidone de Cocchenato and
the rest of the inquisitors had no power to act, as their commis-
sions had been annulled by the pope, and that Fra Pagano di Pie-
tra Santa had a bull to that effect. Some intrigue would seem to
be behind this, which it would be interesting to disentangle, for
we meet here with old acquaintances. Fra Guidone is doubtless
the same inquisitor whom we have seen in 1279 participating in
the punishment of Corrado da Yenosta, and Fra Pagano has come
before us as the subject of a prosecution for heresy in 1295. Pos-
sibly it was this which now stimulated his zeal against the inquisi-
tors, for when the Guglielmites called upon him the next day he
produced the bull and urged them to appear, and thus afford him
evidence that the inquisitors were discharging their functions —
evidence for which he said that he would willingly give twenty-
five lire. It is a striking proof of the impenetrable secrecy in
which the operations of the Inquisition were veiled that he had
been anxiously and vainly seeking to obtain testimony as to who
were really discharging the duties of the tribunal ; when, latterly,
a heretic had been burned at Balsemo he had sent thither to find
out who had rendered the sentence, but was unable to do so.
Then the Guglielmites applied to the Abbot of Chiaravalle and to
one of his monks, Marchisio di Yeddano, himself suspected of Gug-
lielmitism. These asked to have a copy of the bull, and one was
duly made by a notary and given to them, which they took to the
Archbishop of Milan at Cassano, and asked him to place the in-
vestigation of the matter in their hands. He promised to inter-
vene, but if he did so he was probably met with the information,
which had been speedily elicited from the culprits, that they held
Boniface VIII. not to be pope, and consequently that the arch-
bishop whom he had created was not archbishop. Either in this
or in some other way the prelate's zeal was refrigerated, and he
offered no opposition to the proceedings.*
* Ogniben, pp. 21, 40, 42, 78-9.
Dionese de' Novati deposed (p. 93) that Maifreda was in the habit of saying
that Boniface was not truly pope, and that another pontiff had been created.
We have seen that the Spiritual Franciscans had gone through the form of
electing a new pope. There was not much in common between them and the
Guglielmites, and yet this would point to some relations as existing.
100 GUGLIELMA AND DOLCINO.
The Inquisition was well manned, for, besides Fra Guidone,
whose age and experience seem to have rendered him the leading
actor in the tragedy, and Lanfranco, who took little part in it, we
meet with a third inquisitor, Rainerio di Pirovano, and in their
absence they are replaced with deputies, Niccold di Como, Niccolo
di Yarenna, and Leonardo da Bergamo. They pushed the matter
with relentless energy. That torture was freely used there can
be nc doubt. Xo conclusion to the contrary can be drawn from
the absence of allusion to it in the depositions of the accused, for
this is customary. Xot only do the historians of the affair speak
without reserve of its employment, but the character of the suc-
cessive examinations of the leading culprits indicates it unerring-
ly— the confident asseverations at first of ignorance and innocence,
followed, after a greater or less interval, with unreserved confes-
sion. This is especially notable in the cases of those who had
abjured in 1284, such as Andrea, Maifreda, and Giacobba, who,
as relapsed, knew that by admitting their persistent heresy they
were condemning themselves to the flames without hope of mercy,
and who therefore had nothing to gain by confession, except ex-
emption from repetition of torment."
The documents are too imperfect for us to reconstruct the proc-
ess and ascertain the fate of all of those implicated. In Langue-
doc, after all the evidence had been taken, there would have been
an assembly held in which their sentences would have been deter-
mined, and at a solemn Sermo these would have been promul-
gated, and the stake would have received its victims. Much less
formal were the proceedings at Milan. The only sentence of which
we have a record was rendered August 23 in an assembly where
the archbishop sat with the inquisitors and Matteo Yisconti ap-
pears among the assessors ; and in this the only judgment was on
Suor Giacobba dei Bassani, who, as a relapsed, was necessarily
handed over to the secular arm for burning. It would seem that
* Compare Andrea's first examination, July 20 (Ogniben, op. cit. pp. 8-13),
and his second, Aug. 10 (pp. 56-7), with his defiant assertion of his belief, Aug.
13 (pp. 68-72). So, Maifreda's first interrogatory, July 31 (pp. 2£-6), with her
confession, Aug. 6, and revelation of the names of her worshippers (pp. 33-5).
Also, Giacobba dei Bassani's denial, Aug. 3, and confession, Aug. 11 (p. 39). It
is the same with those not relapsed. See Suor Agnese dei Montanari's flat de-
nial, Aug. 3, and her confession, Aug. 11 (pp. 37-8).
THE GUGLIELMITES.
101
even before this Ser Mirano di Garbagnate, a priest deeply impli-
cated, had been burned. Andrea was executed probably between
September 1 and 9, and Maifreda about the same time but we
know nothing about the date of the other executions, or of the
exhumation and cremation of Guglielma's bones — while the exam-
inations of other disciples continued until the middle of October.
Another remarkable peculiarity is that for the minor penalties
the inquisitors called in no experts and did not even consult the
archbishop, but acted wholly at their own discretion, a single
frate absolving or penancing each individual as he saw fit. The
Lombard Inquisition apparently had little deference for the epis-
copate, even of the Ambrosian Church.*
Yet the action of the Inquisition was remarkable for its mild-
ness, especially when we consider the revolutionary character of
the heresy. The number of those absolutely burned cannot be
definitely stated, but it probably did not exceed four or five.
These were the survivors of those who had abjured in 1284, for
whom, as relapsed and obstinate heretics, there could be no mercy
The rest were allowed to escape with penalties remarkably light.
Thus Sibilia Malcolzati had been one of the most zealous of the
sect ; in her early examinations she had resolutely perjured her-
self, and it had cost no little trouble to make her confess, yet
when, on October 6, she appeared before Fra Kainerio and begged
to be relieved from the excommunication which she had incurred,
he was moved by her prayers and assented, on the ordinary con-
ditions that she would stand to the orders of the Church and
Inquisition, and perform the obligations laid upon her. Still more
remarkable is the leniency with which two sisters, Catella and
Pietra Oldegardi, were treated, for Fra Guidone absolved them on
their abjuring their heresy, contenting himself with simply refer-
ring them to their confessors for the penance which they were to
perform. The severest punishment recorded for any except the
relapsed was the wearing of crosses, and these, imposed in Sep-
tember and October, were commuted in December for a fine of
twenty-five lire, payable in February — showing that confiscation
was not a part of the penalty. Even Taria, the expectant cardinal
of the New Dispensation, was thus penanced and relieved. Im-
* Ogniben, pp. 19-20, 77, 91.
102 GUGLIELMA AND DOLCINO.
mediately after Andrea's execution an examination of his wife
Riccadona, as to the furniture in her house and the wine in her
cellar, shows that the Inquisition was prompt in looking after the
confiscations of those condemned to death ; and the fragment of
an interrogatory, February 12, 1302, of Marchisio Secco, a monk
of Chiaravalle, indicates that it was involved in a struggle with
the abbey to compel the refunding of the bequest of Guglielma,
as the heresy for which she had been condemned, of course, ren-
dered void all dispositions of her property. How this resulted we
have no means of knowing, but we may feel assured that the ab-
bey was forced to submit ; indeed, the complicity of the monks
with the heretics was so clearly indicated that we may wonder
none of their names appear in the lists of those condemned.*
Thus ended this little episode of heresy, of no importance in
its origin or results, but curious from the glimpse which it affords
into the spiritual aberrations of the time, and the procedure of
the Lombard Inquisition, and noteworthy as a rare instance of
inquisitorial clemency.f
* Ogniben, pp. 42-4, 63, 67-8, 81-2, 91-2, 95-6, 97, 100, 110, 113, 115-16.
t Spiritual eccentricities, such as those of the Guglielmites, are not to be
regarded as peculiar to any age or any condition of civilization. The story of
Joanna Southcote is well known, and the Southcottian Church maintained its
existence in London until the middle of the present century. In July, 1886, the
American journals reported the discovery, in Cincinnati, of a sect even more
closely approximating to the Guglielmites, and about as numerous, calling them-
selves Perfectionists, and believing in two married sisters — a Mrs. Martin as an
incarnation of God, and a Mrs. Brooke as that of Christ. Like their predeces-
sors in Milan the sect is by no means confined to the illiterate, but comprises
people of intelligence and culture who have abandoned all worldly occupation
in the expectation of the approaching Millennium — the final era of the Ever-
lasting Gospel. The exposure for a time broke up the sect, of which some mem-
bers departed, while others, with the two sisters, joined a Methodist church.
Their faith was not shaken, however, and in June. 1887, the church expelled
them after an investigation. One of the charges against them was that they
held the Church of the present day to be Babylon and the abomination of the
earth. England has also recently had a similar experience in a peasant woman
of not particularly moral life who for some fifteen years, until her death, Sep-
tember 18, 1886, was regarded by her followers as a new incarnation of Christ.
Her own definition of herself was, " I am the second appearing and incarnation
of Jesus, the Christ of God, the Bride, the Lamb's Wife, the God-Mother and
Saviour, Life from Heaven," etc., etc. She signed herself " Jesus, First and
GHERARDO SEGARELLI. 103
About the time when Griiglielma settled in Milan, Parma wit-
nessed the commencement of another abnormal development of
the great Franciscan movement. The stimulus which monachism
had received from the success of the Mendicant Orders, the exal-
tation of poverty into the greatest of virtues, the recognition of
beggary as the holiest mode of life, render it difficult to apportion
between yearnings for spiritual perfection and the attractions of
idleness and vagabondage in a temperate climate the responsibil-
ity for the numerous associations which arose in imitation of the
Mendicants. The prohibition of unauthorized religious orders by
the Lateran Council was found impossible of enforcement. Men
would herd together with more or less of organization in caves
and hermitages, in the streets of cities, and in abandoned dwell-
ings and churches by the roadsides. The Carmelites and Augus-
tinian hermits won recognition after a long struggle, and became
established Orders, forming, with the Franciscans and Dominicans,
the four Mendicant religions. Others, less reputable, or more
independent in spirit, were condemned, and when they refused
to disband they were treated as rebels and heretics. In the ten-
sion of the spiritual atmosphere, any man who would devise and
put in practice a method of life assimilating him most nearly to
the brutes would not fail to find admirers and followers ; and, if
he possessed capacity for command and organization, he could
readily mould them into a confraternity and become an object of
veneration, with an abundant supply of offerings from the pious.
The year 1260 was that in which, according to Abbot Joachim,
the era of the Holy Ghost was to open. The spiritual excitement
which pervaded the population was seen in the outbreak of the
Flagellants, which filled northern Italy with processions of peni-
tents scourging themselves, and in the mutual forgiveness of inju-
ries, which brought an interval of peace to a distracted land. In
such a condition of public feeling, gregarious enthusiasm is easily
directed to whatever responds to the impulse of the moment, and
Last, Mary Ann Girling." At one time her sect numbered a hundred and sev-
enty-five members, some of them rich enough to make it considerable donations,
but under the petty persecution of the populace it dwindled latterly to a few,
and finally dispersed. Aberrations of this nature belong to no special stage of
intellectual development. The only advance made in modem times is in the
method of dealing with them.
IQ4: GUGLIELMA AND DOLCINO.
the self-mortification of a youth of Parma, called Gherardo Sega-
relli, found abundant imitators. Of low extraction, uncultured
and stupid, he had vainly applied for admission into the Franciscan
Order. Denied this, he passed his days vacantly musing in the
Franciscan church. The beatitude of ecstatic abstraction, carried
to the point of the annihilation of consciousness, has not been con-
fined to the Tapas and Samadhi of the Brahman and Buddhist.
The monks of Mt. Athos, known as Umbilicani from their pious
contemplation of their navels, knew it well, and Jacopone da Todi
shows that its dangerous raptures were familiar to the zealots of
the time.* Segarelli, however, was not so lost to external im-
pressions but that he remarked in the scriptural pictures which
adorned the walls the representations of the apostles in the habits
which art has assigned to them. The conception grew upon him
that the apostolic life and vestment would form the ideal religious
existence, superior even to that of the Franciscans which had been
denied to him. As a preliminary, he sold his little property ; then,
mounting the tribune in the Piazza, he scattered the proceeds among
the idlers sunning themselves there, who forthwith gambled it
away with ample floods of blasphemy. Imitating literally the
career of Christ, he had himself circumcised ; then, enveloped in
swaddling clothes, he was rocked in a cradle and suckled by a
woman. His apprenticeship thus completed, he embarked on the
career of an apostle, letting hair and beard grow, enveloped in a
white mantle, with the Franciscan cord around his waist, and san-
dals on his feet. Thus accoutred he wandered through the streets
of Parma crying at intervals " Penitenzagite" which was his igno-
rant rendering of " Penitentiam agite /" — the customary call to
repentance, f
For a while he had no imitators. In search of disciples he wan-
dered to the neighboring village of Collechio, where, standing at
the roadside, he shouted " Enter my vineyard I" The passers-bv
who knew his crazy ways paid no attention to him, but strangers
took his call to be an invitation to help themselves from the
* "0 glorioso stare Annichilarsi bene
In nihil quietato ! Nod e potere humano
Lo' intelletto posato Anzi e virtu divina !"
E Faffetto dormire !
t Salimbene, pp. 112-13.
(Coinba, La Riforma in Italia, I. 310.)
THE APOSTOLIC BRETHREN. 105
ripening grapes of an adjacent vineyard, which they accordingly
stripped. At length he was joined by a certain Kobert, a servant
of the Franciscans, who, as Salimbene informs us, was a liar and
a thief, too lazy to work, who flourished for a while in the sect as
Fra Glutto, and who finally apostatized and married a female her-
mit. Gherardo and Glutto wandered through the streets of Parma
in their white mantles and sandals, calling the people to repent-
ance. They gathered associates, and the number rapidly grew to
three hundred. They obtained a house in which to eat and sleep,
and lacked for nothing, for alms came pouring in upon them more
liberally than on the regular Mendicants. These latter wondered
greatly, for the self-styled Apostles gave nothing in return — they
could not preach, or hear confessions, or celebrate mass, and did
not even pray for their benefactors. They were mostly ignorant
peasants, swineherds and cowherds, attracted by an idle life which
was rewarded with ample victuals and popular veneration. When
gathered together in their assemblies they would gaze vacantly
on Segarelli and repeat at intervals in honor of him, "Father!
Father! Father!"*
When the Council of Lyons, in 1274, endeavored to control the
pest of these unauthorized mendicant associations, it did not dis-
perse them, but contented itself with prohibiting the reception of
future members, in the expectation that they would thus gradu-
ally become extinguished. This was easily eluded by the Apostles,
who, when a neophyte desired to join them, would lay before him
a habit and say, " We do not dare to receive you, as this is pro-
hibited to us, but it is not prohibited to you ; do as you think fit."
Thus, in spite of papal commands, the Order increased and mul-
tiplied, as we are told, beyond computation. In 1284 we hear of
seventy-two postulants in a body passing through Modena and
Eeggio to Parma to be adopted by Segarelli, and a few days after-
wards twelve young girls came on the same errand, wrapped in
their mantles and styling themselves Apostolesses. Imitating
Dominic and Francis, Segarelli sent his followers throughout Eu-
rope and beyond seas to evangelize the world. They penetrated
far, for already in 1287 we find the Council of Wiirzburg stigma-
tizing the wandering Apostles as tramps, and forbidding any one
* Salimbene, pp. 114-16.
106 GUGLIELMA AND DOLCINO.
to give them food on account of their religious aspect and unusual
dress. Pedro de Lugo (Galicia), who abjured before the Inquisition
of Toulouse in 1322, testified that he had been inducted in the sect
twenty years previous by Richard, an Apostle from Alessandria in
Lombardy, who was busily spreading the heresy beyond Compos-
tella*
Xot withstanding the veneration felt by the brethren for Sega-
relli he steadily refused to assume the headship of the Order, say-
ing that each must bear his own burden. Had he been an active
organizer, with the material at his disposition, he might have given
the Church much trouble, but he was inert and indisposed to aban-
don his contemplative self-indulgence. He seems to have hesitated
somewhat as to the form which the association should assume, and
consulted Alberto of Parma, one of the seven notaries of the curia,
whether they should select a superior. Alberto referred him to
the Cistercian Abbot of Fontanaviva, who advised that they should
not found houses, but should continue to wander over the land
wrapped in their mantles, and they would not fail of shelter by
the charitable. Segarelli was nothing loath to follow his counsel,
but a more energetic spirit was found in Guidone Putagi, brother
of the Podesta of Bologna, who entered the Order with his sister
Tripia. Finding that Segarelli would not govern, he seized com-
mand and for many years conducted affairs, but he gave offence
by abandoning the poverty which was the essence of the associa-
tion. He lived splendidly, we are told, with many horses, lavish-
ing money like a cardinal or papal legate, till the brethren grew
tired and elected Matteo of Ancona as his successor. This led to
a split. Guidone retained possession of the person of Segarelli,
and carried him to Faenza. Matteo's followers came there and
endeavored to seize Segarelli by force ; the two parties came to
blows and the Anconitans were defeated. Guidone, however, was
so much alarmed for his safety that he left the Apostles and joined
the Templars. f
Bishop Opizo of Parma, a nephew of Innocent IV., had a liking
* Concil. Lugdun. ann. 1274 c. 23.— Salimbene, pp. 117, 119, 329-30.— Con-
cil. Herbipolens. ann. 1287 (Harduin. VII. 1141).— Lib. Sententt. Inq. Tolosan.
p. 360.
t Salimbene, pp. 114-16.
THE APOSTLES PERSECUTED. 107
for Segarelli, and for his sake protected the Apostles, which serves
to account for their uninterrupted growth. In 1286, however,
three of the brethren misbehaved flagrantly at Bologna, and were
summarily hanged by the podesta. This seems to have drawn at-
tention to the sectaries, for about the same time Honorius IV.
issued a bull especially directed against them. They were com-
manded to abandon their peculiar vestments and enter some recog-
nized order ; prelates were required to enforce obedience by im-
prisonment, with recourse, if necessary, to the secular arm, and the
faithful at large were ordered not to give them alms or hospitality.
The Order was thus formally proscribed. Bishop Opizo hastened
to obey. He banished the brethren from his diocese and impris-
oned Segarelli in chains, but subsequently relenting kept him in
his palace as a jester, for when filled with wine the Apostle could
be amusing.*
For some years we hear little of Segarelli and his disciples.
The papal condemnation discouraged them, but it received scant
obedience. Their numbers may have diminish ed, and public charity
may have been to some extent withdrawn, but they were still nu-
merous, they continued lo wear the white mantle, and to be sup-
ported in their wandering life. The best evidence that the bull of
Honorius failed in its purpose is the fact that in 1291 Nicholas IY.
deemed its reissue necessary. They were now in open antagonism
to the Holy See — rebels and schismatics, rapidly ripening into her-
etics, and fair subjects of persecution. Accordingly, in 1494, we
hear of four of them — two men and two women — burned at Parma,
and of Segarelli' s condemnation to perpetual imprisonment by
Bishop Opizo. There is also an allusion to an earnest missionary
of the sect, named Stephen, dangerous on account of the eloquence
of his preaching, who was burned by the Inquisition. Segarelli had
saved his life by abjuration , possibly after a few years he may
have been released, but he did not abandon his errors ; the Inquisi-
tor of Parma, Fra Manfredo, convicted him as a relapsed heretic,
and he was burned in Parma in 1300. An active persecution fol-
lowed of his disciples. Many were apprehended by the Inquisition
* Salimbene, pp. 117, 371. — Mag. Bull. Rom. 1. 158. — At the same time Hono-
rius approved the Orders of the Carmelites and of St. William of the Desert
(Raynald. aun. 1286, No. 3G, 37).
108 GUGL1ELMA AND DOLCINO.
and subjected to various punishments, until Parma congratulated
itself that the heresy was fairly stamped out.*
Persecution, as usual, had the immediate effect of scattering
the heretics, of confirming them in the faith, and of developing
the heresv into a more decided antagonism towards the Church.
Segarelli's disciples were not all ignorant peasants. In Tuscany a
Franciscan of high reputation for sanctity and learning was in secret
an active missionary, and endeavored even to win over Ubertino
da Casale. Ubertino led him on and then betrayed him, and when
we are told that he was forced to reveal his followers, we may as-
sume that he was subjected to the customary inquisitorial proc-
esses. This points to relationship between the Apostles and the
disaffected Franciscans, and the indication is strengthened bv the
anxiety of the Spirituals to disclaim all connection. The Apostles
were deeply tinged with Joachitism, and the Spirituals endeavor
to hide the fact bv attributing- their errors to Joachim's detested
heretic imitator, the forgotten Amaury. The Conventuals, in fact,
did not omit this damaging method of attack, and in the contest
before Clement V. the Spirituals were obliged to disavow all con-
nection with Dolcinism.f
TTe know nothing of any peculiar tenets taught by Segarelli.
From his character it is not likelv that he indulged in anv recondite
speculations, while the toleration which he enjoyed until near the
end of his career probably prevented him from formulating any
revolutionary doctrines. To wear the habit of the association, to
live in absolute poverty, without labor and depending on daily
charity, to take no thought of the morrow, to wander without a
home, calling upon the people to repent, to preserve the strictest
chastity, was the sum of his teaching, so far as we know, and this
remained to the last the exterior observance of the Apostles. It
was rigidly enforced. Even the austerity of the Franciscans al-
lowed the friar two gowns, as a concession to health and comfort,
but the Apostle could have but one, and if he desired it washed he
* Mag. Bull. Rom. I. 158.— Chron. Parmens. aim. 1294 (Muratori S. R. I. IX.
82G). — Hist. Tribulat. (Archiv fur Litt.- u. Kirchengeschicbte, 1886, p. 130).—
Addit. ad Hist. Prat Dulcini (Muratori IX. 450).
t Hist. Tribulat. (ubi sup.).— Ubertiui Responsio (Archiv f. L. u. K. 1887, p.
51).
DOLCINO'S DOCTRINES. 109
had to remain covered in bed until it was dried. Like the Wal-
denses and Cathari, the Apostles seem to have considered the use
of the oath as unlawful. They were accused, as usual, of incul-
cating promiscuous intercourse, and this charge seemed substan-
tiated by the mingling of the sexes in their wandering life, and by
the crucial test of continence to which they habitually exposed
themselves, in imitation of the early Christians, of lying together
naked ; but the statement of their errors drawn up by the inquisi-
tors who knew them, for the instruction of their colleagues, shows
that license formed no part of their creed, though it would not be
safe to say that men and women of evil life may not have been
attracted to join them by the idleness and freedom from care of
their wandering existence.*
By the time of Grherardo's death, however, persecution had been
sufficiently sharp and long-continued to drive the Apostles into
denying the authority of the Holy See and formulating doctrines
of pronounced hostility to the Church. An epistle written by
Fra Dolcino, about a month after Segarelli's execution, shows that
minds more powerful than that of the founder had been at work
framing a body of principles suited to zealots chafing under the
domination of a corrupt church, and eagerly yearning for a higher
theory of life than it could furnish. Joachim had promised that
the era of the Holy Ghost should open with the year 1260. That
prophecy had been fulfilled by the appearance of Segarelli, whose
mission had then commenced. Tacitly accepting this coincidence,
Dolcino proceeds to describe four successive states of the Church.
The first extends from the Creation to the time of Christ ; the sec-
ond from Christ to Silvester and Constantine, during which the
Church was holy and poor ; the third from Silvester to Segarelli,
during which the Church declined, in spite of the reforms intro-
duced by Benedict, Dominic, and Francis, until it had wholly lost
* Salimbene, pp. 113, 117, 121.— Lib. Sententt. Inq. Tolos. pp. 360-1.— Mura-
tori S. R. I. IX. 455-7.— Bern. Guidon. Practica P. v. — Eymeric. P. n. Q. 11.
The test of continence was regarded with horror by the inquisitors, and yet
when practised by St. Aldhelm it was considered as proof of supereminent
sanctity (Girald. Cambrens. Gemm. Eccles. Dist. n. c. xv.). The coincidence, in
fact, is remarkable between the perilous follies of the Apostles and those of the
Christian zealots of the third century, as described and condemned by Cyprian
(Epist. rv. ad Pompon.).
HO GUGLIELMA AND DOLCINO.
the charity of God. The fourth state was commenced by Sega-
relli, and will last till the Day of Judgment. Then follow prophe-
cies which seem to be based on those of the Pseudo-Joachim's
Commentaries on Jeremiah. The Church now is honored, rich,
and wicked, and will so remain until all clerks, monks, and friars
are cut off with a cruel death, which will happen within three
years. Frederic, King of Trinacria, who had not yet made his
peace with the Holy See, was regarded as the coming avenger, in
consequence, doubtless, of his relations with the Spirituals and his
tendencies in their favor. The epistle concludes with a mass of
Apocalyptical prophecies respecting the approaching advent of
Antichrist, the triumph of the saints, and the reign of holy pov-
erty and love, which is to follow under a saintly pope. The seven
angels of the churches are declared to be Benedict, of Ephesus ;
Silvester, of Pergamus ; Francis, of Sardis ; Dominic, of Laodicea ;
Segarelli, of Smyrna ; Dolcino himself, of Thyatira ; and the holy
pope to come, of Philadelphia. Dolcino announces himself as the
special envoy of God, sent to elucidate Scripture and the prophe-
cies, while the clergy and the friars are the ministers of Satan,
who persecute now, but who will shortly be consumed, when he
and his followers, with those who join them, will prevail till the
end.*
Segarelli had perished at the stake, July 18, and already in
August here was a man assuming with easy assurance the danger-
ous position of heresiarch, proclaiming himself the mouthpiece of
God, and promising his followers speedy triumph in reward for
what they might endure under his leadership. Whether or not
he believed his own prophecies, whether he was a wild fanatic or
a skilful charlatan, can never be absolutely determined, but the
balance of probability lies in his truthfulness. With all his gifts
as a born leader of men, it is safe to assert that if he had not be-
lieved in his mission he could not have inspired his followers with
the devotion which led them to stand by him through sufferings
unendurable to ordinary human nature ; while the cool sagacity
which he displayed under the most pressing emergencies must
* Muratori IX. 449-53.— Guill. Nangiac. Contin. ami. 1306.— R. Fran. Pipini
Chron. cap. xv. (Muratori, IX. 599).— Cf. Lib. Sententt. Inq. Tolos. p. 360.^
Pelayo, Heterodoxos Espanoles, I. 720.
FRA DOLCINO. ni
have been inflamed by apocalyptic visions ere he could have em-
barked in an enterprise in which the means were so wholly inade-
quate to the end — ere he could have endeavored single-handed to
overthrow the whole majestic structure of the theocratic church and
organized feudalism. Dante recognized the greatness of Dolcino
when he represents him as the only living man to whom Mahomet
from the depths of hell deigns to send a message, as to a kindred
spirit. The good Spiritual Franciscans, who endured endless per-
secution without resistance, could only explain his career by a
revelation made to a servant of God beyond the seas, that he was
possessed by a malignant angel named Furcio.*
The paternity of Dolcino is variously attributed to Giulio, a
priest of Trontano in the Yal d'Ossola, and to Giulio, a hermit of
Prato in the Yalsesia, near Novara. Brought as a child to Ver-
celli, he was bred in the church of St. Agnes by a priest named
Agosto, who had him carefully trained. Gifted with a brilliant
intellect, he soon became an excellent scholar, and, though small
of stature, he was pleasant to look upon and won the affection of
all. In after-times it was said that his eloquence and persuasive-
ness were such that no one who once listened to him could ever
throw off the spell. His connection with Yercelli came to a sud-
den end. The priest lost a sum of money and suspected his ser-
vant Patras. The man took the boy and by torturing him forced
him to confess the theft — rightly or wrongly. The priest inter-
fered to prevent the matter from becoming public, but shame and
terror caused Dolcino to depart in secret, and we lose sight of him
until we hear of him in Trent, at the head of a band of Apostles.
He had joined the sect in 1291 ; he must early have taken a promi-
nent position in it, for he admitted in his final confession that he
had thrice been in the hands of the Inquisition, and had thrice ab-
jured. This he could do without forfeiting his position, for it was
one of the principles of the sect, which greatly angered the in-
quisitors, that deceit was lawful when before the Inquisition ; that
* Hist. Tribulat. (ubi sup.).
Or di a Frit Dolcin dunque che s' armi,
Tu che forse vedrai il sole in breve,
S' egli non vuol qui tosto seguitarmi ;
Si di vivanda, che stretta di neve
Non rechi la vittoria al Noarese,
Ch' altrimenti acquistar non saria lieve. — Inferno, xxviii.
112 GUGLIELMA AND DOLCINO.
oaths could then be taken with the lips and not with the heart ;
but that if death could not be escaped, then it was to be endured
cheerfully and patiently, without betraying accomplices."
For three years after his epistle of August, 1300, we know noth-
ing of Dolcino's movements, except that he is heard of in Milan,
Brescia, Bergamo, and Como, but they were busy years of prop-
agandist! and organization. The time of promised liberation
came and passed, and the Church was neither shattered nor
amended. Yet the capture of Boniface VIII. at Anagni, in Sep-
tember, 1303, followed by his death, might well seem to be the be-
ginning of the end, and the fulfilment of the prophecy. In Decem-
ber, 1303, therefore, Dolcino issued a second epistle, in which he an-
nounced as a revelation from God that the first year of the tribu-
lations of the Church had begun in the fall of Boniface. In 1304
Frederic of Trinacria would become emperor, and would destroy
the cardinals, with the new evil pope whom they had just elected ;
in 1305 he would carry desolation through the ranks of all prel-
ates and ecclesiastics, whose wickedness was daily increasing.
Until that time the faithful must lie hid to escape persecution, but
then they would come forth, they would be joined by the Spirituals
of the other orders, they would receive the grace of the Holy Ghost,
and would form the new Church which would endure to the end.
Meanwhile he announced himself as the ruler of the Apostolic
Congregation, consisting of four thousand souls, living without
external obedience, but in the obedience of the Spirit. About a
hundred, of either sex, were organized in control of the brethren,
and he had four principal lieutenants, Longino Cattaneo da Ber-
gamo, Federigo da Xovara, Alberto da Otranto, and Yalderigo da
Brescia. Superior to these was his dearly-loved sister in Christ,
Margherita. Margherita di Trank is described to us as a woman
of noble birth, considerable fortune, and surpassing beauty, who had
been educated in the convent of St. Catharine at Trent. Dolcino
had been the agent of the convent, and had thus made her ac-
quaintance. Infatuated with him, she fled with him, and remained
constant to the last. He always maintained that their relations
* Benvenuto dalmola (Muratori Antiq. III. 457-9). — BescapS, La Novara Sacra,
Novara, 1878, p. 157. — Baggiolini, Dolcino e i Patarini, Xovara, 1838, pp. 35-6. —
Hist. Dulcin. Haeresiarch. (Muratori. S. R. I. IX. 436-7).— Addit. ad Hist. (Ibid.
457, 460).
DOLCINO COLLECTS HIS FOLLOWERS. H3
were purely spiritual, but this was naturally doubted, and the
churchmen asserted that she bore him a child whose birth was
represented to the faithful as the operation of the Holy Ghost.*
Although in this letter of December, 1303, Dolcino recognizes
the necessity of concealment, perhaps the expected approaching fru-
ition of his hopes may have encouraged him to relax his precautions.
Returning in 1304 to the home of his youth with a few sectaries
clad in the white tunics and sandals of the Order, he commenced
making converts in the neighborhood of Gattinara and Serravalle,
two villages of the Valsesia, a few leagues above Vercelli. The In-
quisition was soon upon the track, and, failing to catch him, made
the people of Serravalle pay dearly for the favor which they had
shown him. Deep-seated discontent, both with the Church and
their feudal lords, can alone explain the assistance which Dolcino
received from the hardy population of the foot-hills of the Alps,
when he was forced to raise openly the standard of revolt. A
short distance above Serravalle, on the left bank of the Sesia, a
stream fed by the glaciers of Monte Rosa, lay Borgo di Sesia, in
the diocese of Novara. Thither a rich husbandman, much esteemed
by his neighbors, named Milano Sola, invited Dolcino, and for sev-
eral months he remained there undisturbed, making converts and
receiving his disciples, whom he seems to have summoned from dis-
tant parts, as though resolved to make a stand and take advantage
of the development of his apocalyptic prophecies. Preparations
made to dislodge him, however, convinced him that safety was
only to be found in the Alps, and under the guidance of Milano
Sola the Apostles moved up towards the head- waters of the Sesia,
and established themselves on a mountain crest, difficult of access,
where they built huts. Thus passed the year 1304. Their num-
bers were not inconsiderable— some fourteen hundred of both sexes
—inflamed with religious zeal, regarding Dolcino as a prophet whose
lightest word was law. Thus contumaciously assembled in defiance
of the summons of the Inquisition, they were in open rebellion
* Corio, Hist. Milanesi, arm. 1307.— Benv. da Imola, loc. cit.— Additamentum
(Muratori IX. 454-55, 459).— Baggiolini, pp. 36-7.
Dolcino's two epistles were formally condemned by the Bishop of Parma and
Fra Manfredo, the inquisitor, and must therefore have been circulated outside of
the sect (Eymeric. Direct. Inq. P. n. Q. 29).
III.— 8
114 GUGLIELMA AND DOLCINO.
against the Church. The State also soon became their enemy, for as
the year 1305 opened, their slender stock of provisions was exhausted
and they replenished their stores by raids upon the lower valleys.*
The Church could not afford to brook this open defiance, to
say nothing of the complaints of rapine and sacrilege which filled
the land, yet it shows the dread which Dolcino already inspired
that recourse was had to the pope, under whose auspices a formal
crusade was preached, in order to raise a force deemed sufficient
to exterminate the heretics. One of the early acts of Clement Y.
after his election, June 5, 1305, was to issue bulls for this purpose,
and the next step was to hold an assembly, August 24, where a
league was formed and an agreement signed pledging the assem-
bled nobles to shed the last drop of their blood to destroy the Gaz-
zari, who had been driven out of Sesia and Biandrate, but had not
ceased to trouble the land. Armed with the papal commissions,
Rainerio, Bishop of Yercelli, and the inquisitors raised a consider-
able force and advanced to the mountain refuge of the Apostles.
Dolcino, seeing the futility of resistance, decamped by night and es-
tablished his little community on an almost inaccessible mountain,
and the crusaders, apparently thinking them dispersed, withdrew.
Dolcino was now fairly at bay ; the only hope of safety lay in re-
sistance, and since the Church was resolved on war, he and his fol-
lowers would at least sell their lives as dearly as they could. His
new retreat was on the Parete Calvo — the Bare Wall — whose
name sufficiently describes its character, a mountain overlooking
the village of Campertogno. On this stronghold the Apostles
fortified themselves and constructed such habitations as they could,
and from it they ravaged the neighboring valleys for subsistence.
The Podesta of Yarallo assembled the men of the Yalsesia to dis-
lodge them, but Dolcino laid an ambush for him, attacked him with
stones and such other weapons as the Apostles chanced to have,
and took him prisoner with most of his men, obtaining ransoms
which enabled the sectaries to support life for a while longer.
Their depredations continued till all the land within striking dis-
tance was reduced to a desert, the churches despoiled, and the in-
habitants driven off.f
* Hist. Dulcin. (Muratori IX. 428-9).— Bescape, loc. cit.
f Hist. Dulcin. (Muratori IX. 430-1).— Bescape. loc. cit.
CRUSADES AGAINST DOLCINO. 115
The winter of 1305-6 put to the test the endurance of the her-
etics on their bare mountain-top. As Lent came on they were re-
duced to eating mice and other vermin, and hay cooked in grease.
The position became untenable, and on the night of March 10,
compelled by stern necessity to abandon their weaker companions,
they left the Parete Calvo, and, building paths which seemed im-
possible over high mountains and through deep snows, they estab-
lished themselves on Monte Rubello, overlooking the village of
Triverio, in the diocese of Yercelli. By this time, through want
and exhaustion, their numbers were reduced to about a thousand,
and the sole provisions which they brought with them were a few
scraps of meat. With such secrecy and expedition had the move
been executed that the first intimation that the people of Triverio
had of the neighborhood of the dreaded heretics was a foray by
night, in which their town was ravaged. We do not hear that
any of the unresisting inhabitants were slain, but we are told that
thirty-four of the Apostles were cut off in their retreat and put to
death. The whole region was now alarmed, and the Bishop of
Yercelli raised a second force of crusaders, who bravely advanced
to Monte Rubello. Dolcino was rapidly learning the art of war ;
he made a sally from his stronghold, though again we learn that
some of his combatants were armed only with stones, and the
bishop's troops were beaten back with the loss of many prisoners
who were exchanged for food.*
The heretic encampment was now organized for permanent oc-
cupation. Fortifications were thrown up, houses built, and a well
dug. Thus rendered inexpugnable, the hunted Apostles were in
safety from external attack, and on their Alpine crag, with all
mankind for enemies, they calmly awaited in their isolation the
fulfilment of Dolcino's prophecies. Their immediate danger was
starvation. The mountain-tops furnished no food, and the remains
of the episcopal army stationed at Mosso maintained a strict
blockade. To relieve himself, early in May, Dolcino by a clever
stratagem lured them to an attack, set upon them from an am-
bush, and dispersed them, capturing many prisoners, who, as be-
fore, were exchanged for provisions. The bishop's resources were*
exhausted. Again he appealed to Clement V., who graciously
Hist. Dulcin. (Muratori IX. 430-2).
HQ GUGLIELMA AND DOLCIXO.
anathematized the heretics, and offered plenary indulgence to all
who would serve in the army of the Lord for thirty days against
them, or pay a recruit for such service. The papal letters were
published far and wide, the Yercellese ardently supported their
aged bishop, who personally accompanied the crusade; a large
force was raised, neighboring heights were seized and machines
erected which threw stones into the heretic encampment and de-
molished their huts. A desperate struggle took place for the pos-
session of one commanding eminence, where mutual slaughter so
deeply tinged the waters of the Riccio that its name became
changed to that of Rio Carnaschio, and so strong was the impres-
sion made upon the popular mind that within the last century it
would have fared ill with any sceptical traveller who should aver
within hearing of a mountaineer of the district that its color was
the same as that of the neighboring torrents."
This third crusade was as fruitless as its predecessors. The
assailants were repulsed and fell back to Mosso, Triverio, and
Crevacore, while Dolcino, profiting by experience, fortified and
garrisoned six of the neighboring heights, from which he harried
the surrounding country and kept his people supplied with food.
To restrain them the crusaders built two forts and maintained a
heavy force within them, but to little purpose. Mosso, Triverio,
Cassato, Flecchia, and other towns were burned, and the accounts of
the wanton spoliation and desecration of the churches show how
thoroughlv antisacerdotal the sect had become. Driven to des-
peration, the ancient loving-kindness of their creed gave place to
the cruelty which they learned from their assailants. To deprive
them of resources it was forbidden to exchange food with them
for prisoners, and their captives were mercilessly put to death.
According to the contemporary inquisitor to whom we are in-
debted for these details, since the days of Adam there had never
been a sect so execrable, so abominable, so horrible, or which in a
time so short accomplished so much evil. The worst of it was
that Dolcino infused into his followers his own unconquerable
spirit. In male attire the women accompanied the men in their
expeditions. Fanaticism rendered them invincible, and so great
was the terror which they inspired that the faithful fled from the
Hist. Dulcin (Muratori IX. 432-4.)— Baggiolini, p. 131.
DOLCINO CAPTURED. 117
faces of these dogs, of whom we are told a few would put to flight
a host and utterly destroy them. The land was abandoned by the
inhabitants, and in December, seized with a sudden panic, the
crusaders evacuated one of the forts, and the garrison of the other,
amounting to seven hundred men, was rescued with difficulty.*
Dolcino's fanaticism and military skill had thus triumphed in
the field, but the fatal weakness of his position lay in his inability
to support his followers. This was clearly apprehended by the
Bishop of Vercelli, who built five new forts around the heretic
position ; and when we are told that all the roads and passes were
strictly guarded so that no help should reach them, we may infer
that, in spite of the devastation to which they had been driven,
they still had friends among the population. This policy was
successful. During the winter of 1306-7 the sufferings of the
Apostles on their snowy mountain-top were frightful. Hunger
and cold did their work. Many perished from exhaustion. Others
barely maintained life on grass and leaves, when they were fortu-
nate enough to find them. Cannibalism was resorted to ; the bodies
of their enemies who fell in successful sorties were devoured, and
even those of their comrades who succumbed to starvation. The
pious chronicler informs us that this misery was brought upon
them by the prayers and vows of the good bishop and his flock.f
To this there could be but one ending, and even the fervid
genius of Dolcino could not indefinitely postpone the inevitable.
As the dreary Alpine winter drew to an end, towards the close of
March, the bishop organized a fourth crusade. A large army was
raised to deal with the gaunt and haggard survivors ; hot fighting
occurred during Passion Week, and on Holy Thursday (March
23, 1307) the last entrenchments were carried. The resistance
had been stubborn, and again the Rio Carnaschio ran red with
blood. No quarter was given. " On that day more than a thou-
sand of the heretics perished in the flames, or in the river, or by
the sword, in the cruellest of deaths. Thus they who made sport
of God the Eternal Father and of the Catholic faith came, on the
day of the Last Supper, through hunger, steel, fire, pestilence, and
all wretchedness, to shame and disgraceful death, as they deserved."
* Hist. Dulcin. (Muratori IX. 434,437-8).
t Hist. Dulcin. (lb. 439-40).
US GUGLIELMA AND DOLCINO.
Strict orders had been given by the bishop to capture alive Dol-
cino and his two chief subordinates, Margherita and Longino Cat-
taneo, and great were the rejoicings when they were brought to
him on Saturday, at the castle of Biella.*
Xo case could be clearer than theirs, and yet the bishop deemed
it necessary to consult Pope Clement — a perfectly superfluous
ceremony, explicable perhaps, as Gallenga suggests, by the oppor-
tunity which it afforded of begging assistance for his ruined dio-
cese and exhausted treasury. Clement's avarice responded in a
niggardly fashion, though the extravagant paean of triumph in
which the pope hastened to announce the glad tidings to Philippe le
Bel on the same evening in which he received them shows how
deep was the anxiety caused by the audacious revolt of the handful
of Dolcinists. The Bishops of Yercelli, 2s ovara, and Pavia, and the
Abbot of Lucedio were granted the first fruits of all benefices be-
coming vacant during the next three years in their respective ter-
ritories, and the former, in addition, was exempted during life from
the exactions of papal legates, with some other privileges. While
awaiting this response the prisoners were kept, chained hand and
foot and neck, in the dungeon of the Inquisition at Vercelli, with
numerous guards posted to prevent a rescue, indicating a knowl-
edge that there existed deep popular sympathy for the rebels
against State and Church. The customary efforts were made to
procure confession and abjuration, but while the prisoners boldly
affirmed their faith they were deaf to all offers of reconciliation.
Dolcino even persisted in his prophecies that Antichrist would
appear in three years and a half, when he and his followers would
be translated to Paradise ; that after the death of Antichrist he
would return to the earth to be the holy pope of the new church,
when all the infidels would be converted. About two months
passed away before Clement's orders were received, that they
should be tried and punished at the scene of their crimes. The
customary assembly of experts was convened in Yercelli ; there
could be no doubt as to their guilt, and they were abandoned to
* Hist. Dulcin. (Muratori IX. 439).
Ptolemy of Lucca, who is good contemporaneous authority, puts the number
of those captured with Dolcino at one hundred and fifty, and of those who
perished through exposure and by the sword at only about three hundred
—Hist. Eccles. Lib. xxiv. (Muratori XI. 1227).
DOLCINO'S PUNISHMENT. H9
the secular arm. For the superfluous cruelty which followed the
Church was not responsible ; it was the expression of the terror
of the secular authorities, leading them to repress by an awful
example the ever-present danger of a peasant revolt. On June
1, 1307, the prisoners were brought forth. Margherita's beauty
moved all hearts to compassion, and this, coupled with the reports
of her wealth, led many nobles to offer her marriage and pardon
if she would abjure, but, constant to her faith and to Dolcino, she
preferred the stake. She was slowly burned to death before his
eyes, and then commenced his more prolonged torture. Mounted
on a cart, provided with braziers to keep the instruments of tor-
ment heated, he was slowly driven along the roads through that
long summer day and torn gradually to pieces with red-hot pincers.
The marvellous constancy of the man was shown by his enduring
it without rewarding his torturers with a single change of feature.
Only when his nose was wrenched off was observed a slight shiver
in the shoulders, and when a yet crueller pang was inflicted, a
single sigh escaped him. While he was thus dying in linger-
ing torture Longino Cattaneo, at Biella, was similarly utilized to
afford a salutary warning to the people. Thus the enthusiasts
expiated their dreams of the regeneration of mankind.*
Complete as was Dolcino's failure, his character and his fate
left an ineffaceable impression on the population. The Parete
Calvo, his first mountain refuge, was considered to be haunted by
evil spirits, whom he had left to guard a treasure buried in* a
cave, and who excited such tempests when any one invaded their
domain that the people of Triverio were forced to maintain guards
to warn off persistent treasure -seekers. Still stronger was the
* Mariotti (A. Galenga), Fra Dolcino and his Times, London, 1853, pp. 287-
88— Regest. Clement. PP. V. T. II. pp. 79-82, 88 (Ed. Benedictina, Romae,1886).
— Mosheims Ketzergeschichte I, 395.— Ughelli, Italia Sacra, Ed. 1652, IV. 1104-
8.— Hist. Dulcin. (Muratori IX. 436, 440).— Benv. da Imola (Muratori Antiq. III.
460).— Bernard. Guidon. Vit. Clement. PP. V. (Muratori III. I. 674).— Bescape,
loc. cit.
The punishment inflicted on Dolcino and Longino was not exceptional. By
a Milanese statute of 1393 all secret attempts upon the life of any member of a
family with whom the criminal lived were subject to a penalty precisely the
same in all details, except that it ended by attaching the offender to a wheel
and leaving him to perish in prolonged agony. — Antiqua Ducum Mediolani
Decreta, p. 187 (Mediolani, 1654).
120 GUGLIELMA AND DOLCINO.
influence which he exerted upon his fastness on Monte Rubello.
It became known as the Monte dei Gazzari, and to it, as to an
accursed spot, priests grew into the habit of consigning demons
whom they exorcised on account of hail-storms. The result of
this was that the congregated spirits caused such fearful tempests
that the neighboring lands were ruined, the harvests were yearly
destroyed, and the people reduced to beggary. Finally, as a cure,
the inhabitants of Triverio vowed to God and to St. Bernard that
if they were relieved they would build on the top of the mountain
a chapel to St. Bernard. This was done, and the mountain thus
acquired its modern name of Monte San Bernardo. Every year on
June 15, the feast of St. Bernard, one man from every hearth in
the surrounding parishes marched with their priests in solemn
procession, bearing crosses and banners, and celebrating solemn
services, in the presence of crowds assembled to gain the pardons
granted by the pope, and to share in a distribution of bread pro-
vided by a special levy made on the parishes of Triverio and
Portola, This custom lasted till the French invasion under Xa-
poleon. Renewed in 1S15, it was discontinued on account of the
disorders which attended it. Again resumed in 1S39, it was ac-
companied with a hurricane which is still in the Yalsesia attributed
to the heresiarch, and even to the present day the mountaineers
see on the mountain-crest a procession of Dolcinists during the
night before its celebration. Dolcino's name is still remembered
in the valleys as that of a great man who perished in the effort to
free the populations from temporal and spiritual tyranny.-
Dolcino and his immediate band of followers were thus ex-
terminated, but there remained the thousands of Apostles, scattered
throughout the land, who cherished their belief in secret. Under
the skilful hand of the Inquisition, the harmless eccentricities of
Segarelli were hardened and converted into a strongly antisacer-
dotal heresy, antagonistic to Eome, precisely as we have seen the
same result with the exaggerated asceticism of the Olivists. There
was much in common between the sects, for both drew their
inspiration from the Everlasting Gospel. Like the Olivists, the
Apostles held that Christ had withdrawn his authority from the
* A. Artiaco (Rivista Cristiana, 1877, 145-51).— Hist. Dulcin. (Muratori IX.
441-2).— Baggiolini, pp. 165-71.
THE ORDER OF APOSTLES. 121
Church of Rome on account of its wickedness ; it was the Whore
of Babylon, and all spiritual power was transferred to the Spiritual
Congregation, or Order of Apostles, as they styled themselves.
As time passed on without the fulfilment of the apocalyptic
promises, as Frederic of Trinacria did not develop into a deliverer,
and as Antichrist delayed his appearance, they seem to have aban-
doned these hopes, or at least to have repressed their expression,
but they continued to cherish the belief that they had attained
spiritual perfection, releasing them from all obedience to man, and
that there was no salvation outside of their community. Anti-
sacerdotalism was thus developed to the fullest extent. There
seems to have been no organization in the Order. Reception was
performed by the simplest of ceremonies, either in church before
the altar or in any other place. The postulant stripped himself
of all his garments, in sign of renunciation of all property and of
entering into the perfect state of evangelical poverty ; he uttered
no vows, but in his heart he promised to live henceforth in poverty.
After this he was never to receive or carry money, but was to live
on alms spontaneously offered to him, and was never to reserve
anything for the morrow. He made no promise of obedience to
mortal man, but only to God, to whom alone he was subject, as
were the apostles to Christ. Thus all the externals of religion
were brushed aside. Churches were useless ; a man could better
worship Christ in the woods, and prayer to God was as effective
in a pigsty as in a consecrated building. Priests and prelates and
monks were a detriment to the faith. Tithes should only be given
to those whose voluntary poverty rendered it superfluous. Though
the sacrament of penitence was not expressly abrogated, yet the
power of the keys was virtually annulled by the principle that no
pope could absolve for sin unless he were as holy as St. Peter,
living in perfect poverty and humility, abstaining from war and
persecution, and permitting every one to dwell in liberty ; and, as
all prelates, from the time of Silvester, had been seducers and
prevaricators, excepting only Fra Pier di Morrone (Celestin V.),
it followed that the indulgences and pardons so freely hawked
around Christendom were worthless. One error they shared with
the Waldenses — the prohibition of oaths, even in a court of justice.*
Addit. ad Hist. Dulcin. (Muratori IX. 4oo-7).— Bern. Guidon. Pract. P. v.
122 GUGLIELMA AND DOLCINO.
The description which Bernard Gui gives of the Apostles, in
order to guide his brother inquisitors in their detection, shows how
fully they carried into practice the precepts of their simple creed.
They wore a special habit, closely approaching a conventual garb
— probably the white mantle and cord adopted by Segarelli.
They presented all the exterior signs of saintliness. As they
wandered along the roads and through the streets they sang
hymns, or uttered prayers and exhortations to repentance. What-
ever was spontaneously set before them they ate with thankful-
ness, and when appetite was satisfied they left what might remain
and carried nothing with them. In their humble fashion they
seem to have imitated the apostles as best they could, and to have
carried poverty to a pitch which Angelo da Clarino himself might
have envied. Bernard Gui, in addition, deplores their intractable
obstinacy, and adduces a case in which he had kept one of them
in prison for two years, subjecting him to frequent examination,
before he was brought to confession and repentance — by what
gentle persuasives we may readily guess."
All this may seem to us the most harmless of heresies, and yet
the impression produced by the exploits of Dolcino caused it to
be regarded as one of the most formidable ; and the earnestness
of the sectaries in making converts was rendered dangerous by
their drawing their chief arguments from the evil lives of the
clergy. When the Brethren of the Free Spirit were condemned
in the Clementines, Bernard Gui wrote earnestly to John XXII.,
urging that a clause should be inserted including the Apostles,
whom he described as growing like weeds and spreading from
Italy to Languedoc and Spain. This is probably one of the exag-
gerations customary in such matters, but about this time a Dol-
cinist named Jacopo da Querio was discovered and burned in Avi-
gnon. In 1316 Bernard Gui found others within his own district,
when his energetic proceedings soon drove the poor wretches across
the Pyrenees, and he addressed urgent letters to all the prelates
of Spain, describing them and calling for their prompt extermina-
tion, which resulted, as mentioned in a former chapter, in the ap-
prehension of five of the heretics at far-off Compostella, doubtless
the remnants of the disciples of the Apostle Richard. Possibly
* Bernard. Guidon. Pmctica P. v.
PERSECUTION OF THE APOSTLES. 123
this may have driven some of them back to France for safety, for
in the auto of September, 1322, at Toulouse, there figures the Gali-
cian already referred to named Pedro de Lugo, who had been
strenuously labored with for a year in prison, and on his abjura-
tion was incarcerated for life on bread and water. In the same
auto there was another culprit whose fate illustrates the horror
and terror inspired by the doctrines of the Dolcinists. Guillem
Ruffi had been previously forced to abjuration as a Beguine, and
subsequently had betrayed two of his former associates, one of
whom had been burned and the other imprisoned. This would
seem to be sufficient proof of his zeal for orthodoxy, and yet,
when he happened to state that in Italy there were Fraticelli
who held that no one was perfect who could not endure the
test of continence above alluded to, adding that he had tried
the experiment himself with success, and had taught it to more
than one woman, this was considered sufficient, and without any-
thing further against him he was incontinently burned as a re-
lapsed heretic*
In spite of Bernard Gui's exaggerated apprehensions, the sect,
although it continued to exist for some time, gave no further seri-
ous trouble. The Council of Cologne in 1306 and that of Treves
in 1310 allude to the Apostles, showing that they were not un-
known in Germany. Yet about 1335 so well-informed a writer as
Alvar Pelayo speaks of Dolcino as a Beghard, showing how soon
the memory of the distinctive characteristics of the sect had faded
away. At this very time, however, a certain Zoppio was secretly
spreading the heresy at Kieti, where it seems to have found nu-
merous converts, especially among the women. Attention being
called to it, Fra Simone Filippi, inquisitor of the Koman province,
hastened thither, seized Zoppio, and after examining him delivered
him to the authorities for safe-keeping. When he desired to pro-
ceed with the trial the magistrates refused to surrender the pris-
oner, and abused the inquisitor. Benedict XII. was appealed to,
who scolded roundly the recalcitrant officials for defending a her-
esy so horrible that decency forbids his describing it ; he threat-
* Addit. ad Hist. Dulcin. (Muratori IX. 458).— Bernard. Guidon. Practica P. v.
—Bernard. Guidon. Gravam. (Doat, XXX. 120-4).— Raym. de Fronciacho (Archiv
fur Litt.- u. K. 1887, p. 10,— Lib. Sententt. Tnq. Tolos. pp. 360-3, 381.
12-4 GUGLIELMA AND DOLCINO.
ened them with exemplary punishment for continued contumacy,
and promised that, if they were afraid of damage to the repu-
tation of their women, the latter should be mildly treated and
spared humiliating penance on giving information as to their as-
sociates.*
After a long interval we hear of the Apostles again in Langue-
doc, where, in 1368, the Council of Lavaur calls attention to them
as wandering through the land in spite of the condemnation of the
Holy See, and disseminating errors under an appearance of exter-
nal piety, wherefore they are ordered to be arrested and punished
by the episcopal courts. In 1374 the Council of Xarbonne deemed
it necessary to repeat this injunction ; and we have seen that in
1402 and 1403 the zeal of the Inquisitor Eylard was rewarded in
Lubec and Wismar by the capture and burning of two Apostles.
This is the last authentic record of a sect which a hundred years
before had for a brief space inspired so wide a terror. f
Closely allied with the Dolcinists, and forming a link between
them and the German Brethren of the Free Spirit, were some
Italian heretics known as followers of the Spirit of Liberty, of.
whom a few scattered notices have reached us. They seem to
have avoided the pantheism of the Germans, and did not teach
the return of the soul to its Creator, but they adopted the danger-
ous tenet of the perfectibility of man, who in this life can become
as holy as Christ. This can be accomplished by sins as well as
by virtues, for both are the same in the eye of God, who directs
all things and allows no human free-will. The soul is purified by
sin, and the greater the pleasure in carnal indulgences the more
nearly they represent God. There is no eternal punishment, but
* Concil. Coloniens. aim. 1306 c. 1, 2 (Hartzheirn IY. 100, 102).— Concil. Tre-
virens. aim. 1310 c. 50 (Martene Thesanr. IV 250). — Alvar. Pelag. de Planctu Ec-
cles. Lib. n. art. lii. (fol. 166, 172, Ed. 1517).— Wadding, aim. 1335, No. 8-9.— Ray
nald.ann. 1335, No. 62.
t Concil. Vaurens. aim. 1368 c. 24 ; Concil. Narbonn. aim. 1374 c. 5 (Harduin.
VII. 1818, 1880).— Herman. Corneri Chron. ann. 1260, 1402 (Eccard. Corp. Hist.
Med. ^Evi 11.906,1185).
I have already referred (Vol. II. p. 429) to the persecution at Prague, in 1315, of
some heretics whom Dubravius qualifies as Dolcinists, but who probably were
Waldenses and Luciferans.
THE "SPIRIT OF LIBERTY.'' 125
souls not sufficiently purified in this life undergo purgation until
admitted to heaven.*
We first hear of these sectaries as appaaring among the Fran-
ciscans of Assisi, where, under active proceedings, seven of the
friars confessed, abjured, and were sentenced to perpetual prison.
When, in 1309, Clement V. sought to settle the points in dispute
between the Spirituals and Conventuals, the first of the four pre-
liminary questions which he put to the contending factions related
to the connection between the Order and this heresy, of which
both sides promptly sought to clear themselves. The next refer-
ence to them is in April, 1311, Avhen they were said to be multi-
plying rapidly in Spoleto, among both ecclesiastics and laymen,
and Clement sent thither Raimundo, Bishop of Cremona, to stamp
out the new heresy. The effort was unavailing, for in 1327, at
Florence, Donna Lapina, belonging to the sect " of the Spirit "
whose members believed themselves impeccable, was condemned
by Fra Accursio, the inquisitor, to confiscation and wearing crosses ;
and in 1329 Fra Bartolino da Perugia, in announcing a general in-
quisition to be made of the province of Assisi, enumerates the new
heresy of the Spirit of Liberty among those which he proposes to
suppress. More important was the case of Domenico Savi of As-
coli, who was regarded as a man of the most exemplary piety. In
1337 he abandoned wife and children for a hermit's life, and the
bishop built for him a cell and oratory. This gave him still greater
repute, and his influence was such that when he began to dissemi-
nate the doctrines of the Spirit of Liberty, which he undertook by
means of circulating written tracts, the number of his followers is
reckoned at ten thousand. It was not long before this attracted
the attention of the Inquisition. He was tried, and recanted, while
his writings were ordered to be burned. His convictions, how-
ever, were too strong to allow him to remain orthodox. He re-
lapsed, was tried a second time, appealed to the pope, and was
finally condemned by the Holy See in 1344, when he was handed
over to the secular arm and burned at Ascoli. As nothing is said
* MS. Bibl. Casanatense A. iv. 49.— I owe the communication of this docu-
ment to the kindness of M. Charles Molinier. See also Amati, Archivio Storico
Italiano, No. 38, p. 14.
For the connection between these heretics and the Dolcinists, compare Ar-
chiv fiir Lit.- u. Kirchengeschichte, 1886, p. 131, with 1887, pp. 123-4.
126 GUGLIELMA AND DOLCINO.
about the fate of his disciples it may be assumed that they escaped
by abjuration. He is usually classed with the Fraticelli, but the
errors attributed to him bear no resemblance to those of that sect,
and are evidently exaggerations of the doctrines of the Spirit of
Liberty.*
Before dismissing the career of Dolcino, it may be worth while
to cast a passing glance at that of a modern prophet which, like
the cases of the modern Guglielmites, teaches us that such spiritual
phenomena are common to all ages, and that even in our colder
and more rationalistic time the mysteries of human nature are the
same as in the thirteenth century.
Dolcino merely organized a movement which had been in prog-
ress for nearly half a century, and which was the expression of
a widely diffused sentiment. David Lazzaretti of Arcidosso was
both founder and martyr. A wagoner in the mountains of south-
ern Tuscany, his herculean strength and ready speech made him
widely known throughout his native region, when a somewhat
wild and dissipated youth was suddenly converted into an ascetic
of the severest type, dwelling in a hermitage on Monte Labbro, and
honored with revelations from God. His austerities, his visions,
and his prophecies soon brought him disciples, many of whom
adopted his mode of life, and the peasants of Arcidosso revered
him as a prophet. He claimed that, as early as 1848, he had been
called to the task of regenerating the world, and that his sudden
conversion was caused by a vision of St. Peter, who imprinted on
his forehead a mark (0 + C) in attestation of his mission. He
was by no means consistent in his successive stages of develop-
ment. A patriot volunteer in 1860, he subsequently upheld the
cause of the Church against the assaults of heretic Germany, but
in 1876 his book, " My Struggle with God," reveals his aspirations
towards the headship of a new faith, and describes him as carried
to heaven and discoursing with God, though he still professed
himself faithful to Rome and to the papacy. The Church dis-
dained his aid and condemned his errors, and he became a heresi-
* Archiv fur Litt.- u. Kirchengeschichte, 1887, pp. 51, 144-5. — Raynald. aim.
1311, No. 66-70 : aim. 1318, No. 44.— Archiv. di Firenze, Prov. S. Maria Novella,
1327, Ott. 31.— Franz Ehrle, Archiv fur Lit.- n. Kirchengeschichte, 1885, p. 160.
— D'Argentre I. i. 33G-7.— Cantu, Eretici d'ltalia, 1. 133..
DAVID LAZZARETTI. 127
arch. In the spring of 1878 he urged the adoption of sacerdotal
marriage, he disregarded fast-days, administered communion to his
disciples in a rite of his own, and composed for them a creed of
which the twenty -fourth article was, " I believe that our founder,
David Lazzaretti, the anointed of the Lord, judged and condemned
by the Roman curia, is really Christ, the leader and the judge."
That the people accepted him is seen in the fact that for three
successive Sundays the priest of Arcidosso found his church with-
out a worshipper. David founded a " Society of the Holy League,
or Christian Brotherhood," and proclaimed the coming Republic
or Kingdom of God, when all property should be equally divided.
Even this communism did not frighten off the small proprietors
who constituted the greater portion of his following. There was
general discontent, owing to a succession of unfortunate harvests
and the increasing pressure of taxation, and when, on August 14,
1878, he announced that he would set out with his disciples peace-
fully to inaugurate his theocratic republic, the whole population
gathered on Monte Labbro. After four days spent in religious
exercises the extraordinary crusade set forth, consisting of all ages
and both sexes, arrayed in a fantastic uniform of red and blue,
and bearing banners and garlands of flowers with which to revolu-
tionize society. Its triumphal march was short. At the village
of Arcidosso its progress was disputed by a squad of nine cara-
bineers, who poured volleys into the defenceless crowd. Thirty-
four of the Lazzarettists fell, killed and wounded, and among them
David himself, with a bullet in his brain.* Whether he was en-
thusiast or impostor may remain an open question. Travel and
study had brought him training ; he was no longer a rude moun-
* Barzellotti, David Lazzaretti di Arcidosso detto il Santo. Bologna, 1885.
Somewhat similar is the career of an ex-sergeant of the Italian army named
Gabriele Donnici, who has founded in the Calabrian highlands a sect dignifying
itself with the title of the Saints. Gabriele is a prophet announcing the advent
of a new Messiah, who is to come not as a lamb, but as a lion breathing ven-
geance and armed with bloody scourges. He and his brother Abele were tried
for the murder of the wife of the latter, Grazia Funaro, who refused to submit to
the sexual abominations taught in the sect. They were condemned to hard labor
and imprisonment, but were discharged on appeal to the Superior Court of Co-
senza. Other misdeeds of the sectaries are at present occupying the attention of
the Italian tribunals.— Rivista Cristiana, 1887, p. 57.
123 GUGLIELMA AND DOLCINO.
tain peasant, but could estimate the social forces against which he
raised the standard of revolt, and could recognize that they were
insuperable save to an envoy of God. Possibly on the slopes of
Monte Amiata his memory may linger like that of Dolcino in the
Yalsesia ; certain it is that many of his disciples long expected his
resurrection.
CHAPTER III.
THE FRATICELLI.
AVe have seen how John XXII. created and exterminated the
heresy of the Spiritual Franciscans, and how Michele da Cesena
enforced obedience within the Order as to the question of gran-
aries and cellars and the wearing of short and narrow gowns.
The settlement of the question, however, on so illogical a basis as
this was impossible, especially in view of the restless theological
dogmatism of the pope and his inflexible determination to crush all
dissidence of opinion. Having once undertaken to silence the dis-
cussions over the rule of poverty which had caused so much trouble
for nearly a century, his logical intellect led him to carry to their
legitimate conclusions the principles involved in his bulls Quorum-
dam, Sancta Romana, and Gloriosam Eeclesiam, while his thorough
worldliness rendered him incapable of anticipating the storm
which he would provoke. A character such as his was unable to
comprehend the honest inconsistency of men like Michele and
Bonagrazia, who could burn their brethren for refusing to have
granaries and cellars, and who, at the same time, were ready to
endure the stake in vindication of the absolute poverty of Christ
and the apostles, which had so long been a fundamental belief of
the Order, and had been proclaimed as irrefragable truth in the
bull Exiit qui seminat.
In fact, under a pope of the temperament of John, the ortho-
dox Franciscans had a narrow and dangerous path to tread. The
Spirituals were burned as heretics because they insisted on follow-
ing their own conception of the Rule of Francis, and the distinc-
tion between this and the official recognition of the obligation, of
poverty was shadowy in the extreme. The Dominicans were not
slow to recognize the dubious position of their rivals, nor averse
to take advantage of it. If they could bring the received doc-
trines of the Franciscan Order within the definition of the new
III.— 9
130 THE FRATICELLI.
heresy they would win a triumph that might prove permanent.
The situation was so artificial and so untenable that a catastrophe
was inevitable, and it might be precipitated by the veriest trifle.
In 1321, when the persecution of the Spirituals was at its
height, the Dominican inquisitor, Jean de Beaune, whom we have
seen as the colleague of Bernard Gui and the jailer of Bernard
Delicieux, was engaged at Xarbonne in the trial of one of the pro-
scribed sect. To pass judgment he summoned an assembly of ex-
perts, among whom was the Franciscan Berenger Talon, teacher
in the convent of Xarbonne. One of the errors which he repre-
sented the culprit as entertaining was that Christ and the apostles,
following the way of perfection, had held no possessions, individu-
ally or in common. As this was the universal Franciscan doctrine,
we can only regard it as a challenge when he summoned Frere
Berenger to give his opinion respecting it. Berenger thereupon
replied that it was not heretical, having been defined as orthodox
in the decretal Exiit, when the inquisitor hotly demanded that he
should recant on the spot. The position was critical, and Beren-
ger, to save himself from prosecution, interjected an appeal to the
pope. He hastened to Avignon, but found that Jean de Beaune
had been before him. He was arrested ; the Dominicans every-
where took up the question, and the pope allowed it to be clearly
seen that his sympathies were with them. Yet the subject was a
dangerous one for disputants, as the bull Exiit had anathematized
all who should attempt to gloss or discuss its decisions ; and, as a
preliminary to reopening the question, John was obliged, March
26, 1322, to issue a special bull, Quia nonnunquam, wherein he
suspended, during his pleasure, the censures pronounced in Exiit
qui seminat. Having thus intimated that the Church had erred
in its former definition, he proceeded to lay before his prelates
and doctors the significant question whether the pertinacious as-
sertion that Christ and the apostles possessed nothing individually
or in common was a heresy.*
The extravagances of the Spirituals had borne their fruit, and
there was a reaction against the absurd laudation of poverty which
had grown to be a fetich. This bore hard on those who had been
* Nicholans Minorita (Baluz. et Mansi III. 207). — Chron. Glassberger ann.
1321— Wadding, ann. 1321, No. 16-19; ann. 1322, No. 49-50.
REACTION AGAINST DOCTRINE OF POVERTY. 131
conscientiously trained in the belief that the abnegation of prop-
erty was the surest path to salvation ; but the follies of the ascetics
had become uncomfortable, if not dangerous, and it was necessary
for the Church to go behind its teachings since the days of Antony
and Hilarion and Simeon Stylites, to recur to the common-sense of
the gospel, and to admit that, like the Sabbath, religion was made
for man and not man for religion. In a work written some ten
years after this time, Alvar Pelayo, papal penitentiary and himself
a Franciscan, treats the subject at considerable length, and doubt-
less represents the views which found favor with John. The
anchorite should be wholly dead to the world and should never
leave his hermitage ; memorable is the abbot who refused to open
his door to his mother for fear his eye should rest upon her, and
not less so the monk who, when his brother asked him to come a
little way and help him with a foundered ox, replied, " Why dost
thou not ask thy brother who is yet in the world ?" " But he has
been dead these fifteen vears !" " And I have been dead to the
world these twenty years !" Short of this complete renunciation,
all men should earn their living by honest labor. In spite of the
illustrious example of the sleepless monks of Dios, the apostolic
command "Pray without ceasing" (Thessal. v. 17) is not to be
taken literally. The apostles had money and bought food (John
iv. 8), and Judas carried the purse of the Lord (John xn. 6). Bet-
ter than a life of beggary is one blessed by honest labor, as a
swineherd, a shepherd, a cowherd, a mason, a blacksmith, or a
charcoal-burner, for a man is thus fulfilling the purpose of his cre-
ation. It is a sin for the able-bodied to live on charity, and thus
usurp the alms due to the sick, the infirm, and the aged. All this
is a lucid interval of common-sense, but what would Aquinas or
Bonaventura have said to it, for it sounds like the echo of their
great antagonist. William of Saint- Amour ?*
* Alvar. Pelag. de Planctu Ecclesiae Lib. i. Art. 51. fol. 165-9.
In fact, the advocates of poverty did not miss the easy opportunity of stigma-
tizing their antagonists as followers of William of Saint-Amour. See Tocco,
uUn Codice della Marciana," Venezia, 1887, pp. 12, 39 (Ateneo Veneto, 1§86-
1887).
The MS. of which Professor Tocco has here printed the most important por-
tions, with elucidatory notes, is a collection of the responses made to the question
submitted for discussion by John XXII. as to the poverty of Christ and the
132 THE FRATICELLI.
It was inevitable that the replies to the question submitted by
John should be adverse to the poverty of Christ and the apostles.
The bishops were universally assumed to be the representatives of
the latter, and could not be expected to relish the assertion that
their prototypes had been commanded by Christ to own no prop-
erty. The Spirituals had made a point of this. Olivi had proved
not only that Franciscans promoted to the episcopate were even
more bound than their brethren to observe the Kule in all its
strictures, but that bishops in general were under obligation to
live in deeper poverty than the members of the most perfect Or-
der. !Now that there was a chance of justifying their worldliness
and luxury, it was not likely to be lost. Yet John himself for
a while held his own opinion suspended. In a debate before the
consistory, Ubertino da Casale, the former leader of the orthodox
Spirituals, was summoned to present the Franciscan view of the
poverty of Christ, in answer to the Dominicans, and we are told
that John was greatly pleased with his argument. Unluckily, at
the General Chapter held at Perugia, May 30, 1322, the Francis-
cans appealed to Christendom at large by a definition addressed to
all the faithful, in which they proved that the absolute poverty of
Christ was the accepted doctrine of the Church, as set forth in
the bulls Exi'it and Exivi de Paradiso, and that John himself had
approved of these in his bull Quorumdam. Another and more
comprehensive utterance to the same effect received the signatures
of all the Franciscan masters and bachelors of theology in France
and England. AVith a disputant such as John this was an act of
apostles. They are significant of the general reaction against the previously pre-
vailing dogma, and of the eagerness with which, as soon as the free expression
of opinion was safe, the prelates repudiated a doctrine condemnatory of the tem-
poralities so industriously accumulated by all classes of ecclesiastics. There
were but eight replies affirming the poverty of Christ, and these were all from
Franciscans — the Cardinals of Albano and San Vitale, the Archbishop of Salerno,
the Bishops of CafTa, Lisbon. Riga, and Badajoz. and an unknown master of the
Order. On the other side there were fourteen cardinals, including even Xapoleone
Orsini, the protector of the Spirituals, and a large number of archbishops,
bishops, abbots, and doctors of theology. It is doubtless true, however, that the
fear of offending the pope was a factor in producing this virtual unanimity — a
fear not unreasonable, as was shown by the disgrace and persecution of those who
maintained the poverty of Christ. — (Tocco, ubi sup. p. 35).
JOHN XXII. AROUSED TO ANTAGONISM. 133
more zeal than discretion. His passions were fairly aroused, and
he proceeded to treat the Franciscans as antagonists. In Decem-
ber of the same year he dealt them a heavy blow in the bull Ad
conditorem, wherein with remorseless logic he pointed out the fal
lacy of the device of Innocent IV. for eluding the provisions of
the Rule by vesting the ownership of property in the Holy See and
its use in the Friars. It had not made them less eager in acquisi-
tiveness, while it had led them to a senseless pride in their own as-
serted superiority of poverty. He showed that use and consump-
tion as conceded to them were tantamount to ownership, and that
pretended ownership subject to such usufruct was illusory, while
it was absurd to speak of Rome as owning an egg or a piece of
cheese given to a friar to be consumed on the spot. Moreover, it
was humiliating to the Roman Church to appear as plaintiff or de-
fendant in the countless litigations in which the Order was in-
volved, and the procurators who thus appeared in its name were
said to abuse their position to the injury of many who were de-
frauded of their rights. For these reasons he annulled the pro-
visions of Nicholas III., and declared that henceforth no owner-
ship in the possessions of the Order should inhere in the Roman
Church and no procurator act in its name.*
The blow was shrewdly dealt, for though the question of the
poverty of Christ was not alluded to, the Order was deprived of
its subterfuge, and was forced to admit practically that ownership
of property was a necessary condition of its existence. Its mem-
bers, however, had too long nursed the delusion to recognize its
fallacy now, and in January, 1323, Bonagrazia, as procurator spe-
cially commissioned for the purpose, presented to the pope in full
consistory a written protest against his action. If Bonagrazia
had not arguments to adduce he had at least ample precedents to
cite in the long line of popes since Gregory IX., including John
himself. He wound up by audaciously appealing to the pope, to
* Franz Ehrle, Archiv fur Litt.- u. K. 1887, pp. 511-12.— Baluz et Mansi II.
279-80.— Nicholaus Minorita (Ibid. III. 208-13).
Curiously enough, in this John did exactly what his special antagonists, the
Spi rituals, had desired. Olivi had long before pointed out the scandal of an
Order vowed to poverty litigating eagerly for property and using the transpa-
rent cover of papal procurators (Hist. Tribulat. ap. Archiv fur Litt.- u. K. 1886,
p. 298).
134 THE FRATICELLI.
Holy Mother Church, and to the apostles, and though he concluded
by submitting himself to the decisions of the Church, he could not
escape the wrath which he had provoked. It was not many years
since Clement V. had confined him for resisting too bitterly the
extravagance of the Spirituals : he still consistently occupied the
same position, and now John cast him into a 2ou\ and dismal dun-
geon because he had not moved with the world, while the only
answer to his protest was taking down from the church doors the
bull Ad conditorem and replacing it with a revised edition, more
decided and argumentative than its predecessor.*
All this did not conduce to a favorable decision of the question
as to the poverty of Christ. John was now fairly enlisted against
the Franciscans, and their enemies lost no opportunity of inflaming
his passions. He would listen to no defence of the decision of the
Chapter of Perugia. In consistory a Franciscan cardinal and some
bishops timidly ventured to suggest that possibly there might be
some truth in it, when he angrily silenced them — " You are talking
heresy " — and forced them to recant on the spot. When he heard
that the greatest Franciscan schoolman of the day, William of
Ockham, had preached that it was heretical to affirm that Christ
and the apostles owned property, he promptly wrote to the Bishops
of Bologna and Ferrara to investigate the truth of the report,
and if it was correct to cite Ockham to appear before him at
Avignon within a month. Ockham obeyed, and we shall hereafter
see what came of it.f
The papal decision on the momentous question was at last put
forth, ^November 12, 1323, in the bull Cum inter nonnullos. In
this there was no wavering or hesitation. The assertion that
Christ and the apostles possessed no property was flatly declared
to be a perversion of Scripture; it was denounced for the fut-
ure as erroneous and heretical, and its obstinate assertion by the
Franciscan chapter was formally condemned. To the believers
in the supereminent holiness of poverty, it was stunning to find
themselves cast out as heretics for holding a doctrine which for
generations had passed as an incontrovertible truth, and had repeat-
edly received the sanction of the Holy See in its most solemn form
* Nicholaus Minorita (Bal. et Mansi III. 213-24).
f Wadding, ann. 1323, No. 3, 15.
THE PAPACY AND THE EMPIRE. 135
of ratification. Yet there was no help for it, and unless they were
prepared to shift their belief with the pope, they could only ex-
pect to be delivered in this world to the Inquisition and in the
next to Satan.*
Suddenly there appeared a new factor in the quarrel, which
speedily gave it importance as a political question of the first mag-
nitude. The sempiternal antagonism between the papacy and the
empire had been recently assuming a more virulent aspect than
usual under the imperious management of John XXII. Henry
VII. had died in 1313, and in October, 1311, there had been a dis-
puted election. Louis of Bavaria and Frederic of Austria both
claimed the kaisership. Since Leo III., in the year 800, had re-
newed the line of Roman emperors by crowning Charlemagne,
the ministration of the pope in an imperial coronation had been
held essential, and had gradually enabled the Holy See to put
forward undefined claims of a right to confirm the vote of the
German electors. For the enforcement of such claims a disputed
election gave abundant opportunity, nor were there lacking other
elements to complicate the position. The Angevine papalist King
of Naples, Robert the Good, had dreams of founding a great Ital-
ian Guelf monarchy, to which John XXII. lent a not unfavorable'
ear ; especially as his quarrel with the Ghibelline Yisconti of Lom-
bardy was becoming unappeasable. The traditional enmity be-
tween France and Germany, moreover, rendered the former eager
in everything that could cripple the empire, and French influence
was necessarily dominant in Avignon. It would be foreign to our
purpose to penetrate into the labyrinth of diplomatic intrigue
which speedily formed itself around these momentous questions.
An alliance between Robert and Frederic, with the assent of the
pope, seemed to give the latter assurance of recognition, when
the battle of Muhldorf, September 28, 1322, decided the question.
Frederic was a prisoner in the hands of his rival, and there could
be no further doubt as to which of them should reign in Germany.
It did not follow, however, that John would consent to place the
imperial crown on the head of Louis, t
* Nicholaus Minority (Bal. et Mansi III. 224).
t Carl Miiller, Der Kampf Ludwigs des Baiern mit der romischen Curie, § 4.
— Felten, Die Bulle Ne pretereat, Trier, 1885.— Preger, Die Politik des Pabstes
Johann XXII., Munchen, 1885, pp. 44-6.
136 THE FRATICELLL
So far was he from contemplating any such action that he still
insisted on deciding between the claims of the competitors. Louis
contemptuously left his pretensions unanswered and proceeded to
settle matters by concluding a treaty with his prisoner and setting
him free. Moreover, he intervened effectually in the affairs of
Lombardy, rescued the Yisconti from the Guelf league which was
about to overwhelm them, and ruined the plans of the cardinal
legate, Bertrand de Poyet, John's nephew or son, who was carv-
ing out a principality for himself. It would have required less
than this to awaken the implacable hostility of such a man as
John, whose only hope for the success of his Italian policy now
lay in dethroning Louis and replacing him with the French king,
Charles le Bel. He rushed precipitately to the conflict and pro-
claimed no quarter. October 8, 1323, in the presence of a vast
multitude, a bull was read and affixed to the portal of the cathe-
dral of Avignon, which declared not only that no one could act as
King of the Romans until his person had been approved by the
pope, but repeated a claim, already made in 1317, that until such
approval the empire was vacant, and its government during the
interregnum belonged to the Holy See. All of Louis's acts were
pronounced null and void ; he was summoned within three months
to lay down his power and submit his person to the pope for ap-
proval, under pain of the punishments which he had incurred by
his rebellious pretence of being emperor ; all oaths of allegiance
taken to him were declared annulled ; all prelates were threat-
ened with suspension, and all cities and states with excommuni-
cation and interdict if they should continue to obey him. Louis
at first received this portentous missive with singular humility.
November 12 he sent to Avignon envoys, who did not arrive until
January 2, 1324, to ask whether the reports which he had heard
of the papal action were true, and if so to request a delay of six
months in which to prove his innocence. To this John, on Janu-
ary 7, gave answer extending the term only two months from that
day. Meanwhile Louis had taken heart, possibly encouraged by
the outbreak of the quarrel between John and the Franciscans,
for the date of the credentials of the envoys, November 12, was
the same as that of the bull Gum inter nonnullos. On December
18, he issued the Nuremberg Protest, a spirited vindication of the
rights of the German nation and empire against the new preten-
THE PROTEST OF S AC HSENH AUSEN. 137
sions of the papacy ; he demanded the assembling of a general
council before which he would make good his claims ; it was his
duty, as the head of the empire, to maintain the purity of the
faith against a pope who was a fautor of heretics. It shows how
little he yet understood about the questions at issue that to sus-
tain this last charge he accused John of unduly protecting the
Franciscans against universal complaints that they habitually vio-
lated the secrecy of the confessional, this being apparently his
version of the papal condemnation of John of Poilly's thesis that
confession to a Mendicant friar was insufficient.*
If Louis at first thought to gain strength by thus utilizing the
jealousy and dislike felt by the secular clergy towards the Men-
dicants, he soon realized that a surer source of support was to be
found in espousing the side of the Franciscans in the quarrel forced
upon them by John. The two months' delay granted by John ex-
pired March 7 without Louis making an appearance, and on March
25 the pope promulgated against him a sentence of excommunica-
tion, with a threat that he should be deprived of all rights if he
did not submit within three months. To this Louis speedily re-
joined in a document known as the Protest of Sachsenhausen, which
shows that since December he had put himself in communication
with the disaffected Franciscans, had entered into alliance with
them, and had recognized how great was the advantage of posing
as the defender of the faith and assailing the pope with the charge
of heresy. After paying due attention to John's assaults on the
rights of the empire, the Protest takes up the question of his
recent bulls respecting poverty and argues them in much detail.
John had declared before Franciscans of high standing that for
forty years he had regarded the Rule of Francis as fantastic and
impossible. As the Eule was revealed by Christ, this alone proves
him to be a heretic. Moreover, as the Church is infallible in its
definitions of faith, and as it has repeatedly, through Honorius
III., Innocent IV., Alexander IV., Innocent V., Nicholas III., and
Nicholas IV., pronounced in favor of the poverty of Christ and the
apostles, John's condemnation of this tenet abundantly shows him
* Carl Miiller, op. cit. § 5.— Preger, Politik des Pabstes Johann XXII. (Miin-
chen, 1885, pp. 7, 54). — Martene Thesaur. II. 644-51. — Raynald. ann. 1323,
No. 34-5.
138 THE FRATICELLI.
to be a heretic. His two constitutions, Ad conditorem and Cum
inter nonnullos, therefore, have cut him off from the Church as a
manifest heretic teaching a condemned heresy, and have disabled
him from the papacy ; all of which Louis swore to prove before a
general council to be assembled in some place of safety.*
John proceeded with his prosecution of Louis by a further dec-
laration, issued July 11, in which, without deigning to notice the
Protest of Sachsenhausen, he pronounced Louis to have forfeited
by his contumacy all claim to the empire ; further obstinacy would
deprive him of his ancestral dukedom of Bavaria and other pos-
sessions, and he was summoned to appear October 1, to receive
final sentence. Yet John could not leave unanswered the assault
upon his doctrinal position, and on November 10 he issued the bull
Quia quoru?nda?n, in which he argued that he had exercised no
undue power in contradicting the decisions of his predecessors : he
declared it a condemned heresy to assert that Christ and the apos-
tles had only simple usufruct, without legal possession, in the
things which Scripture declared them to have possessed, for if this
were true it would follow that Christ was unjust, which is blas-
phemy. All who utter, write, or teach such doctrines fall into
condemned heresy, and are to be avoided as heretics. f
Thus the poverty of Christ was fairly launched upon the world
as a European question. It is a significant illustration of the intel-
lectual condition of the fourteenth century that in the subsequent
* Martene Thesaur. II. 652-9.— Xich. Minorita (Bal. et Mansi III. 224-33).
The date of the Protest of Sachsenhausen is not positively known, but it was
probably issued in April or May, 1324 (Miiller, op. cit. I. 357-8). Its authorship
is ascribed by Preger to Franz von Lautern. and Ehrle has shown that much of
its argumentation is copied literally from the writings of Olivi (Archiv fur Litt.-
u. Kirchengeschichte, 1887, 540). When there were negotiations for a settlement
in 1336, Louis signed a declaration prepared by Benedict XII., in which he was
made to say that the portions concerning the poverty of Christ were inserted
without his knowledge by his notary, Ulric der Wilde for the purpose of injur-
ing him (Raynald ann. 1336, No. 31-5); but he accompanied this self-abasing
statement with secret instructions of a very different character (Preger, Kirchen-
politische Kampf, p. 12).
t Martene Thesaur. II. 660-71.— Nich. Minorita (Bal. et Mansi III. 233-6).
Even in far-off Ireland the bull of July 11, depriving Louis of the empire, was
read in all the churches in English and Irish. — Theiner, Monument. Hibern. et
Scotor. No. 456, p. 230.
MARSIGLIO OF PADUA. 139
stages of the quarrel between the papacy and the empire, involv-
ing the most momentous principles of public law, those principles,
in the manifestoes of either side, assume quite a subordinate posi-
tion. The shrewd and able men who conducted the controversy
evidently felt that public opinion was much more readily influ-
enced by accusations of heresy, even upon a point so trivial and
unsubstantial, than by appeals to reason upon the conflicting juris-
dictions of Church and State.* Yet, as the quarrel widened and
deepened, and as the stronger intellects antagonistic to papal pre-
tensions gathered around Louis, they were able, in unwonted lib-
erty of thought and speech, to investigate the theory of govern-
ment and the claims of the papacy with unheard-of boldness.
Unquestionably they aided Louis in his struggle, but the spirit of
the age was against them. Spiritual authority was still too aw-
ful for successful rebellion, and when Louis passed away affairs
returned to the old routine, and the labors of the men who had
waged his battle in the hope of elevating humanity disappeared,
leaving but a doubtful trace upon the modes of thought of the
time.
The most audacious of these champions was Marsiglio of Padua.
Interpenetrated with the principles of the imperial jurisprudence,
in which the State was supreme and the Church wholly subordi-
nated, he had seen in France how the influence of the Roman law
was emancipating the civil power from servitude, and perhaps in
the University of Paris had heard the echoes of the theories of
Henry of Ghent, the celebrated Doctor Solemnis, who had taught
the sovereignty of the people over their princes. He framed a
conception of a political organization which should reproduce that
of Pome under the Christian emperors, with a recognition of the
people as the ultimate source of all civil authority. Aided by Jean
de Jandun he developed these ideas with great hardihood and
skill in his "Defensor Pads" and in 1326, when the strife be-
tween John and Louis was at its hottest, the two authors left
Paris to lay the result of their labors before the emperor. In a
brief tract, moreover, " De translatione imperii" Marsiglio subse-
* See the documents in the second prosecution of Louis by John, where the
accusations against him constantly commence with his pertinacious heresy in
maintaining the condemned doctrine of the poverty of Christ. — Martene Thesaur.
II. G82 sqq. Cf. Guill. Nangiac. Contin. ann. 1328.
14:0 THE FRATICELLI.
quently sketched the manner in which the Holy Roman Empire
had arisen, showing the ancient subjection of the Holy See to the
imperial power, and the baselessness of the papal claims to confirm
the election of the emperors. John XXII. had no hesitation in
condemning the daring authors as heretics, and the protection
which Louis afforded them added another count to the indictment
against him for heresy. Unable to wreak vengeance upon them,
all who could be supposed to be their accomplices were sternly
dealt with. A certain Francesco of Venice, who had been a stu-
dent with Marsiglio at Paris, was seized and carried to Avignon
on a charge of having aided in the preparation of the wicked book,
and of having supplied the heresiarch with money. Tried before
the Apostolic Chamber, he stoutly maintained that he was igno-
rant of the contents of the "Defensor Pads" that he had depos-
ited money with Marsiglio, as was customar}r with scholars, and
that Marsiglio had left Paris owing him thirteen sols parisis. Jean
de Jandun died in 1328, and Marsiglio not later than 1343, thus
mercifully spared the disappointment of the failure of their theo-
ries. In so far as purely intellectual conceptions had weight in
the conflict they were powerful allies for Louis. In the " Defen-
sor Pads" the power of the keys is argued away in the clearest
dialectics. God alone has power to judge, to absolve, to condemn.
The pope is no more than any other priest, and a priestly sentence
may be the result of hatred, favor, or injustice, of no weight with
God. Excommunication, to be effective, must not proceed from
the judgment of a single priest, but must be the sentence of the
whole community, with full knowledge of all the facts. It is no
wonder that when, in 1376, a French translation of the work ap-
peared in Paris it created a profound sensation. A prolonged
inquest was held, lasting from September to December, in which
all the learned men in the city were made to swear before a notary
as to their ignorance of the translator.*
* Altmayer, Les Precurseurs de la Reforme aux Pays-Bas, Bruxelles, 1886, I.
38. — Guillel. Nangiac. Contin. arm. 1326. — Fasciculus Rer. Expetendarum et
Fugiend. II. 55, Ed. 1690.— D'Argentre, I. i. 304-11, 397-400.— Baluz, et Mansi
II. 280-1. — Martene Thesaur. II. 704-16. — Preger, Kirchenpolitische Kainpf,
pp. 34, 65. — Defensor. Pacis II. 6.
The manner in which Fritsche Closener, a contemporary priest of Strassburg,
speaks of the Defensor Pacis shows what an impression it made, and that even
WILLIAM OF OCKHAM. 141
More vehement and more fluent as a controversialist was the
great schoolman, William of Ockham. When the final breach
came between the papacy and the rigid Franciscans he was al-
ready under inquisitorial trial for his utterances. Escaping from
Avignon with his general, Michele, he found refuge, like the rest,
with Louis, whose cause he strengthened by skilfully linking the
question of Christ's poverty with that of German independence.
Those who refused to accept a papal definition on a point of faith
could only justify themselves by proving that popes were fallible
and their power not unlimited. Thus the strife over the narrow
Franciscan dogmatism on poverty broadened until it embraced
the great questions which had disturbed the peace of Europe since
the time of Hildebrand, nearly three centuries before. In 1324
Ockham boasted that he had set his face like flint against the
errors of the pseudo-pope, and that so long as he possessed hand,
paper, pens, and ink, no abuse or lies or persecution or persuasion
would induce him to desist from attacking them. He kept his
promise literally, and for twenty years he poured forth a series of
controversial works in defence of the cause to which he had de-
voted his life. Without embracing the radical doctrines of Mar-
siglio on the popular foundation of political institutions, he practi-
cally reached the same outcome. While admitting the primacy of
the pope, he argued that a pope can fall into heresy, and so, in-
deed, can a general council, and even all Christendom. The influ-
ence of the Holy Ghost did not deprive man of free-will and
prevent him from succumbing to error, no matter what might be
his station. There was nothing sure but Scripture; the poorest
and meanest peasant might adhere to Catholic truth revealed to
him by God, while popes and councils erred. Above the pope is
the general council representing the whole Church. A pope re-
fusing to entertain an appeal to a general council, declining to as-
semble it, or arrogating its authority to himself is a manifest
heretic, whom it is the duty of the bishops to depose, or, if the
bishops refuse, then that of the emperor, who is supreme over the
earth. But it was not only by the enunciation of general princi-
a portion of the clergy was uot averse to its conclusions. — Closeners Chronik
(Chroniken der deutschen Stadte VIII. 70.— Cf. Chron. des Jacob von Konigs-
bofen, lb. p. 473).
142 THE FRATICELLI.
pies that he carried on the war ; merciless were his assaults on the
errors and inconsistencies of John XXII. , who was proved guilty
of seventy specific heresies. Thus to the bitter end his dauntless
spirit kept up the strife ; one by one his colleagues died and sub-
mitted, and he was left alone, but he continued to shower ridicule
on the curia and its creatures in his matchless dialectics. Even
the death of Louis and the hopeless defeat of his cause did not stop
his fearless pen. Church historians claim that in 134:9 he at last
made his peace and was reconciled, but this is more than doubtful.
for Giacomo della Marca classes him with Michele and Bonagrazia
as the three unrepentant heretics who died under excommunica-
tion. It is not easy to determine with accuracy what influence
was exercised by the powerful intellects which England. France,
and Italy thus contributed to the defence of German independence.
Possibly they may have stimulated Wickliff to question the founda-
tion of papal power and the supremacy of the Church over the
State, leading to Hussite insubordination. Possibly, too, they may
have contributed to the movement which in various development
emboldened the Councils of Constance and Basle to claim superi-
ority over the Holy See, the Gallican Church to assert its liberties,
and England to frame the hostile legislation of the Statutes of
Pro visors and Praemunire. If this be so, the hopeless entangle-
ments of German politics caused them to effect less in their own
chosen battle-field than in lands far removed from the immediate
scene of conflict.*
This rapid glance at the larger aspects of the strife has been
necessary to enable us to follow intelligently the vicissitudes of
the discussion over the poverty of Christ, which occupied in the
struggle a position ludicrously disproportionate to its importance.
For some time after the issue of the bulls C<r,n inter nonn ullos and
Quia quorumdam there was a sort of armed neutrality between
John and the heads of the Franciscan Order. Each seemed to be
afraid of taking a step which should precipitate a conflict, doubt-
* Martene Thesaur. II. 749-52. — Tocco, L'Eresia nel Medio Evo, pp. 532-555.
— Preger, Der Kircbenpolitische Kampf, pp. 8-9. — Carl Miiller. op. cit. II. 251-
2,— Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1323.— Raynald. ami. 1349, No. 16-17.— Jac.
de Marchia Dial. (Bal. et Mausi II. 600).
IMPENDING RUPTURE. 143
less secretly felt by both sides to be inevitable. Still there was a
little skirmishing for position. In 1325 Michele had summoned
the general chapter to assemble at Paris, but he feared that an ef-
fort would be made to annul the declarations of Perugia, and that
John would exercise a pressure by means of King Charles le Bel,
whose influence was great through the number of benefices at his
disposal. Suddenly, therefore, he transferred the call to Lyons,
where considerable trouble was experienced through the efforts of
Gerard Odo, a creature of the pope, and subsequently the suc-
cessor of Michele, to obtain relaxations of the Pule as regarded
poverty. Still the brethren stood firm, and these attempts were
defeated, while a constitution threatening with imprisonment all
who should speak indiscreetly and disrespectfully of John XXII.
and his decretals indicates the passions which were seething under
the surface» Not long after this we hear of a prosecution suddenly
commenced against our old acquaintance Ubertino da Casale, in
spite of his Benedictine habit and his quiet residence in Italy.
He seems to have been suspected of having furnished the argu-
ments on the subject of the poverty of Christ in the Protest of
Sachsenhausen, and, September 16, 1325, an order was sent for his
arrest, but he got wind of it and escaped to Germany — the first
of the illustrious band of refugees who gathered around Louis of
Bavaria, though he appears to have made his peace in 1330. John
seems to have at last grown restive at the tacit insubordination of
the Franciscans, who did not openly deny his definitions as to the
poverty of Christ, but whom he knew to be secretly cherishing in
their hearts the condemned doctrine. In 1326 Michele issued de-
crees subjecting to a strict censorship all writings by the brethren
and enforcing one of the rules which prohibited the discussion of
doubtful opinions, thus muzzling the Order in the hope of averting
dissension ; but it was not in John's nature to rest satisfied with
silence which covered opposition, and in August, 1327, he advanced
to the attack. In the bull Quia nonnunquam, addressed to arch-
bishops and inquisitors, he declared that many still believed in the
poverty of Christ in spite of his having pronounced such belief a
heresy, and that those who entertained it should be treated as
heretics. He therefore now orders the prelates and inquisitors to
prosecute them vigorously, and though the Franciscans are not
specially named, the clause which deprives the accused of all papal
l±± THE FRATICELLI.
privileges and subjects them to the ordinary jurisdictions suffi-
ciently shows that they were the object of the assault. It is quite
possible that this was provoked by some movement among the re-
mains of the moderate Spirituals of Italy — men who came to be
known as Fraticelli — who had never indulged in the dangerous
enthusiasms of the Olivists, but who were ready to suffer martyr-
dom in defence of the sacred principles of poverty. Such men
could not but have been at once excited by the papal denial of
Christ's poverty, and encouraged by finding the Order at large
driven into antagonism with the Holy See. Sicily had long been
a refuge for the more zealous when forced to flee from Italy. At
this time we hear of their crossing back to Calabria, and of John
writing to Xiccolo da Reggio, the Minister of Calabria, savage in-
structions to destroy them utterly. Lists are to be made out and
sent to him of all who show them favor, and King Robert is ap-
pealed to for aid in the good work. Robert, in spite of his close
alliance with the pope, and the necessity of the papal favor for his
ambitious plans, was sincerely on the side of the Franciscans. He
seems never to have forgotten the teachings of Arnaldo de Vila-
nova, and as his father, Charles the Lame, had interfered to protect
the Spirituals of Provence, so now both he and his queen did what
they could with the angry pope to moderate his wrath, and at the
same time he urged the Order to stand firm in defence of the Rule.
In the protection which he afforded he did not discriminate closely
between the organized resistance of the Order under its general,
and the irregular mutiny of the Fraticelli. His dominions, as well
as Sicily, served as a refuge for the latter. AVith the troubles
provoked by John their numbers naturally grew. Earnest spirits,
dissatisfied with Michele's apparent acquiescence in John's new
heresy, would naturally join them. They ranged themselves un-
der Henry da Ceva, who had fled to Sicily from persecution un-
der Boniface Till. ; they elected him their general minister and
formed a complete independent organization, which, when John
triumphed over the Order, gathered in its recalcitrant fragments
and constituted a sect whose strange persistence under the fiercest
persecution we shall have to follow for a century and a half.*
* Wadding, arm. 1317, No. 9 ; arm. 1318, No. 8 ; arm. 1323. No. 16 ; ann. 1325,
No. 6; ann. 1331, No. 3.— Chron. Glassbergerann. 1325,1326, 1330.— Raynald. ann.
CORONATION OF LOUIS. 145
On the persecution of these insubordinate brethren Michele da
Cesena could afford to look with complacency, and he evidently
desired to regard the bull of August, 1327, as directed against
them. He maintained his attitude of submission. In June the
pope had summoned him from Home to Avignon, and he had ex-
cused himself on the ground of sickness. His messengers with his
apologies were graciously received, and it was not until December
2 that he presented himself before John. The pope subsequently
declared that he had been summoned to answer for secretly en-
couraging rebels and heretics, and doubtless the object was to be
assured of his person, but he was courteously welcomed, and tne
ostensible reason given for sending for him was certain troubles
in the provinces of Assisi and Aragon, in which Michele obediently
changed the ministers. Until April, 1328, he remained in the papal
court, apparently on the best of terms with John.*
Meanwhile the quarrel between the empire and the papacy had
been developing apace. In the spring of 1326 Louis suddenly and
without due preparation undertook an expedition to Italy, at the
invitation of the Ghibellines, for his imperial coronation. When
he reached Milan in April to receive the iron crown John sternly
forbade his further progress, and on this being disregarded, pro-
ceeded to excommunicate him afresh. Thus commenced another
prolonged series of citations and sentences for heresy, including
the preaching of a crusade with Holy Land indulgences against
the impenitent sinner. Unmoved by this, Louis slowly made his
way to Rome, which he entered January 7, 1327, and where he
was crowned on the 17th, in contemptuous defiance of papal pre-
rogative, by four syndics elected by the people, after which, ac-
cording to usage, he exchanged the title of King of the Romans
for that of Emperor. As the defender of the faith he proceeded
to. try the pope on the charge of heresy, based upon his denial of
the poverty of Christ. April 14 he promulgated a law authorizing
the prosecution and sentence in absentia of those notoriously de-
famed for treason or heresy, thus imitating the papal injustice of
1325, No. 20, 27.— Franz Ehrle (Archiv fur L. u. »K. 1886, p. 151).— Martene
Thesaur. II. 752-3.— Vitoduran. Chron. (Eccard. Corp. Hist. I. 1799).— D' Argen-
ts, I. 1. 297.— Eymeric. pp. 291-4.
* Martene Thesaur. II. 749. — Baluz. et Mansi III. 315-16. — Nicbolaus Minorita
(Baluz.et Mansi III. 238-40).
III.— 10
146 THE FRATICELLI.
which he himself complained bitterly ; and, on the 17th, sentence
of deposition was solemnly read to the assembled people before
the basilica of St. Peter. It recited that it was rendered at the
request of the clergy and people of Rome; it recapitulated the
crimes of the pope, whom it stigmatized as Antichrist ; it pro-
nounced him a heretic on account of his denying the poverty of
Christ, deposed him from the papacy, and threatened confiscation
on all who should render him support and assistance.*
As a pope was necessary to the Church, and as the college of
cardinals were under excommunication as fautors of heresy, re-
course was had to the primitive method of selection : some form
of election by the people and clergy of Rome was gone through
on May 12, and a new Bishop of Rome was presented to the
Christian world in the person of Pier di Corbario, an aged Fran-
ciscan of high repute for austerity and eloquence. He was Minis-
ter of the province of the Abruzzi and papal penitentiary. He
had been married, his wife was still living, and he was said to
have entered the Order without her consent, which rendered him
" irregular " and led to an absurd complication, for the woman,
who had never before complained of his leaving her, now came
forward and put in her claims to be bought off. He assumed the
name of Nicholas V., a college of cardinals was readily created
for him, he appointed nuncios and legates and proceeded to de-
grade the Guelfic bishops and replace them with Ghibellines. In
the confusion attendant upon these revolutionary proceedings it
can be readily imagined that the Fraticelli emerged from their
hiding-places and indulged in glowing anticipations of the future
which they fondly deemed their own.f
Although the Franciscan prefect of the Roman province as-
sembled a chapter at Anagni which pronounced against Pier di
Corbario, and ordered him to lay aside his usurped dignity, it was
impossible that the Order should escape responsibility for the re-
bellion, nor is it likely that Michele da Cesena was not privy to
the whole proceeding. He had remained quietly at Avignon, and
* Chron. Sanens. (Muratori S. R. I. XV. 77. 79).— Martene Thesaur. II. 684-
723.— Nicholaus Minorita (Bal. et Mansi III. 240-3).
t Nicholaus Minorita (Bal. et Mansi III. 243). — Ptolotnaei Lucensis Hist.
Eccles. cap. 41 (Muratori S. R. I. XL 1210).— Chron. Sanens. (Muratori XV. 80).
—Wadding, ann. 1328, No. 2-4, 8 -11.
MICHELE IN OPPOSITION. 147
John had manifested no abatement of cordiality until April 9,
when, on being summoned to an audience, the pope attacked him
on the subject of the Chapter of Perugia, which six years before had
asserted the poverty of Christ and the apostles. Michele stoutly
defended the utterances of the chapter, saying that if they were
heretical then Nicholas IV. and the other popes who had affirmed
the doctrine were heretics. Then the papal wrath exploded.
Michele was a headstrong fool, a fautor of heretics, a serpent nour-
ished in the bosom of the Church ; and when the stream of invective
had exhausted itself he was placed under constructive arrest, and
ordered not to leave Avignon without permission, under pain of
excommunication, of forfeiture of office, and of future disability.
A few days later, on April 14, in the secrecy of the Franciscan con-
vent, he relieved his feelings by executing a solemn notarial pro-
test, in the presence of William of Ockham, Bonagrazia, and other
trusty adherents, in which he recited the circumstances, argued that
the pope either was a heretic or no pope, for either his present
utterances were erroneous or else Nicholas IV. had been a heretic ;
in the latter case Boniface VIII. and Clement V., who had approved
the Bull Exiit qui seminat, were likewise heretics, their nominations
of cardinals were void, and the conclave which elected John was
illegal. He protested against whatever might be done m deroga-
tion of the rights of the Order, that he was in durance and in just
fear, and that what he might be forced to do would be null and
void. The whole document is a melancholy illustration of the
subterfuges rendered necessary by an age of violence.*
Michele was detained in Avignon while the general chapter
of the Order was held at Bologna, to which John sent Bertrand,
Bishop of Ostia, with instructions to have another general chosen.
The Order, however, was stubborn. It sent a somewhat defiant
message to the pope and re-elected Michele, requesting him more-
over to indicate Paris as the next place of assemblage, to be held,
according to rule, in three years, to which he assented. In view
of the drama which was developing in Rome he might reasonably
fear for liberty or life. Preparations were made for his escape.
A galley, furnished, according to John, by the Emperor Louis, but
according to other and more trustworthy accounts, by Genoese
Nicholaus Minorita (Bal. et Mansi III. 238-40).
148 THE FRATICELLI.
refugees, was sent to Aigues-mortes. Thither he fled, May 26, ac-
companied by Ockhani and Bonagrazia. The Bishop of Porto,
sent by John in hot haste after him, had an interview with him
on the deck of his galley, but failed to induce him to return. He
reached Pisa on June 9, and there ensued a war of manifestoes of
unconscionable length, in which Michele was pronounced excom-
municate and deposed, and John was proved to be a heretic who
had rightfully forfeited the papacy. Michele could only carry on
a worclv conflict, while John could act. Bertrand de la Tour,
Cardinal of San Yitale, was appointed Vicar-general of the Order,
another general chapter was ordered to assemble in Paris, June,
1329, and preparations were made for it by removing all pro-
vincials favorable to Michele. and appointing in their places men
who could be relied on. Out of thirty-four who had met in
Bologna only fourteen were seen in Paris ; Michele was deposed
and Gerard Odo was elected in his place ; but even under this
pressure no declaration condemning the poverty of Christ could
be obtained from the chapter. The mass of the Order, reduced
to silence, remained faithful to the principles represented by its
deposed general, until forced to acquiescence by the arbitrary
measures so freely employed by the pope and the examples made
of those who dared to express opposition. Still John Avas not dis-
posed to relax the Franciscan discipline, and when, in 1332, Gerard
Odo, in the hope of gaining a cardinal's hat, persuaded fourteen
provincial ministers to join him in submitting a gloss which would
have virtually annulled the obligation of poverty, his only reward
was the ridicule of the pope and sacred college.*
* Xicholaus Minonta (Baluz. et Mansi III. 243-349).— Jac. de Marchia Dial.
(Ibid. II. 598).— Chron. Sanens. (Muratori S. R. I. XV. 81).— Vitodurani Chron.
(Eccard. Corp. Hist. I. 1799-1800).— Marteue Tbesaur. II. 757-60.— Alvar. Pelag.
De Planctu Eccles. Lib. n. art. 67.
The career of Cardinal Bertrand de la Tour illustrates the pliability of con-
science requisite to those who served John XXII. He was a Franciscan of high
standing. As Provincial of Aquitaine he had persecuted the Spirituals.
Elevated to the cardinalate, when John called for opinions on the question of
the poverty of Christ he had argued in the affirmative. In conjunction with
Vitale du Four, Cardinal of Albano, lie had secretly drawn up the declaration of
the Chapter of Perugia which so angered the pope, but when the latter made up
his mind that Christ had owned property, the cardinal promptly changed his
THE INQUISITION AT TODI. 149
The settlement of the question depended much more upon
political than upon religious considerations. Louis had abandoned
Rome and established himself in Pisa with his pope, his cardinals,
and his Franciscans, but the Italians were becoming tired of their
kaiser. It mattered little that in January, 1329, he indulged in
the childish triumph of solemnly burning John XXII. in effigy ;
he was obliged soon after to leave the city, and towards the end
of the year he returned to Germany, carrying with him the men
who were to defend his cause with all the learning of the schools,
and abandoning to their fate those of his partisans who were
unable to follow him.* The proceedings which ensued at Todi
will serve to show how promptly the Inquisition tracked his re-
treating footsteps, and how useful it was as a political agency in
reducing rebellious communities to submission.
The Todini were Ghibelline. In 1327, when John XXII. had
ordered Francisco Damiani, Inquisitor of Spoleto, to proceed vigor-
ously against Mucio Canistrario of Todi as a rebel against the
Church, and Mucio had accordingly been imprisoned, the people
had risen in insurrection and liberated the captive, while the
inquisitor had been forced to fly for his life. In August, 1328, they
had welcomed Louis as emperor and Pier di Corbario as pope, and
had ordered their notaries to use the regnal years of the latter in
their instruments ; they had, moreover, attacked and taken the
Guelf city of Orvieto and, like all the cities which adhered to
Louis, they had expelled the Dominicans. In August, 1329, aban-
doned by Louis, proceedings were commenced against them by the
Franciscan, Fra Bartolino da Perugia, the inquisitor, who an-
nounced his intention of making a thorough inquest of the whole
district of Assisi against all Patarins and heretics, against those
who assert things not to be sins which the Church teaches to be
sins, or are minor sins which the Church holds to be greater,
against those who understand the Scriptures in a sense different
from what the Holy Spirit demands, against those who talk
against the state and observance of the Roman Church and its
convictions, and was now engaged in persecuting those who adhered to the
belief which lie had prescribed for them. — Tocco, Un Codice della Marciana, pp.
40,43,45.
* Chron. Cornel. Zantfliet (Martene Ainpl. Coll. V. 187).— Villani, Lib. x. c.
126, 144.
150 THE FRATICELLL
teachings, and against those who have detracted from the dignity
and person of the pope and his constitutions. Under this search-
ing examinations were made as to the acts of the citizens during
the visit of Louis, any sign of respect paid to him being regarded
as a crime, and two sets of prosecutions were commenced — one
against the Ghibellines of the city and the other against the
" rebellious " Franciscans. These latter were summoned to reply
to five articles — 1, If they believed in, favored, or adhered to the
Bavarian and the intrusive antipope; 2, If they had marched
with a cross to meet these heretics on their entrance into Todi ;
3, If they had obeyed or done reverence to the Bavarian as em-
peror or to P. di Corbario as pope; 4, If they had taught or
preached that the constitutions of John were heretical or himself
a heretic ; 5, If, after Michele da Cesena was condemned and de-
posed for heresy, they had adhered to him and his errors. These
interrogations show how conveniently the religious and political
questions were mingled together, and how thorough was the
investigation rendered possible by the machinery of the Inquisi-
tion. The proceedings dragged on, and, July 1, 1330, John con-
demned the whole community as heretics and fautors of heresy.
July 7 he sent this sentence to the legate, Cardinal Orsini, with
instructions to cite the citizens peremptorily and to try them,
according to the inquisitorial formula, " summarie et de piano et
s-hie strepitu et jigura" Under this the Todini finally made sub-
mission, the cardinal sent Fra Bartolino and his colleague thither,
and the city was reconciled, subject to the papal approval. They
had been obliged to make a gift of ten thousand florins to Louis, and
now a fine of equal amount was levied upon them, besides one hun-
dred lire imposed on each of one hundred and thirty-four citizens.
Apparently the terms exacted were not satisfactory to John, for a
papal brief of July 20, 1331, declared the submission of the citizens
deceitful, and ordered the interdict renewed. The last document
which we have in the case is one of June 1, 1332, in which the legate
sends to the Bishop of Todi a list of one hundred and ninety-seven
persons, including Franciscans, parish priests, heads of religious
houses, nobles, and citizens, who are ordered to appear before him
at Orvieto on June 15, to stand trial on the inquisitions which
have been found against them. That the proceedings were pushed
to the bitter end there can be no doubt, for when in this year the
FATE OF PIER DI CORBARIO. 151
General Gerard Odo proposed to revoke the commission of Fra
Bartolino, John intervened and extended it for the purpose of
enabling him to continue the prosecutions to a definite sentence.
This is doubtless a fair specimen of the minute persecution Avhich
was going on wherever the Ghibellines were not strong enough to
defend themselves by force of arms.*
As for the unhappy antipope, his fate was even more deplora-
ble. Confided at Pisa bv Louis to the care of Count Fazio da
%j
Doneratico, the leading noble of the city, he was concealed for
a while in a castle in Maremma. June 18, 1329, the Pisans rose
and drove out the imperialist garrison, and in the following Janu-
ary they were reconciled to the Church. A part of the bargain
was the surrender of Pier di Corbario, to whom John promised to
show himself a kind father and benevolent friend, besides enrich-
ing Fazio for the betrayal of his trust. After making public ab-
juration of his heresies in Pisa, Pier was sent, guarded by two state
galleys, to Nice, where he was delivered to the papal agents. In
every town on the road to Avignon he was required publicly to
repeat his abjuration and humiliation. August 25, 1330, with a
halter around his neck, he was brought before the pope in public
consistory. Exhausted and broken with shame and suffering, he
flung himself at his rival's feet and begged for mercy, abjuring and
anathematizing his heresies, and especially that of the poverty of
Christ. Then, in a private consistory, he was made again to con-
fess a long catalogue of crimes, and to accept such penance as
might be awarded him. No humiliation was spared him, and
nothing was omitted to make his abject recantation complete.
Having thus rendered him an object of contempt and deprived
him of all further power of harm, John mercifully spared him
bodily torment. He was confined in an apartment in the papal
palace, fed from the papal table, and allowed the use of books, but
no one was admitted to see him without a special papal order.
His wretched life soon came to an end, and when he died, in 1333,
he was buried in the Franciscan habit. Considering the ferocity
of the age, his treatment is one of the least discreditable acts in
the career of John XXII. It was hardly to be expected, after the
* Franz Ehrle (Archiv fur L. u K. 1885, pp. 159-64; 1886, pp. 653-69).—
Archivio Storico Italiano, 1 Ott. 1865, pp. 10-21.— Ripoll II. 180.— Wadding,
ann. 1326, No. 9; 1327, No. 3-4; 1331, No. 4; 1332, No. 5.
152 THE FRATICELLL
savage vindictiveness of the Ernulphine curse which he had pub-
lished, April 20, 1329, on his already fallen rival — ;; May he in
this life feel the wrath of Peter and Paul, whose church he has
sought to confound! May his dwelling-place be deserted, and
may there be none to live under his roof! May his children be
orphans, and his wife a widow ! May they be driven forth from
their hearth-stones to beggary ! May the usurer devour their sub-
stance, and strangers seize the work of their hands ! May the
whole earth fight against him, mav the elements be his enemies,
may the merits of all the saints at rest confound him and wreak
vengeance on him through life !" *
During the progress of this contest public opinion was by no
means unanimous in favor of John, and the Inquisition was an ef-
ficient instrumentality in repressing all expression of adverse sen-
timents. In 1328, at Carcassonne, a certain Germain Frevier was
tried before it for blaspheming against John, and stigmatizing his
election as simoniacal because he had promised never to set foot
in stirrup till he should set out for Rome. Germain, moreover,
had declared that the Franciscan pope was the true pope, and that
if he had money he would go there and join him and the Bavarian.
Germain was not disposed to martyrdom ; at first he denied, then,
after being left to his reflections in prison for five months, he
pleaded that he had been drunk and knew not what he was say-
ing; a further delay showed him that he was helpless, he con-
fessed his offences and begged for mercy.f
Another case, in 1329, shows us what were the secret feelings
of a large portion of the Franciscan Order, and the means required
to keep it in subordination. Before the Inquisition of Carcas-
sonne, Frere Barthelemi Bruguiere confessed that in saying mass
and coming to the prayer for the pope he had hesitated which of
the two popes to pray for, and had finally desired his prayer to
be for whichever was rightfully the head of the Church. Many
of his brethren, he said, were in the habit of wishing that God
would give John XXII. so much to do that he would forget the
* Villani, Lib. x. c. 131, 142. 160 — Guill. Nangiac. Contin. ann. 1330.— Wad-
ding, aim. 1330, No. 9.— Martene Thesaur. II. 736-70 ; 806-15.— Chron. Cornel.
Zantfliet ann. 1330 (Martene Ampl. Coll. V. 194-8).
t Archives de l'lnq. de Carcassonne (Doat. XXVII. 7 sqq.).
DISSENSIONS WITHIN THE ORDER. 153
Franciscans, for it seemed to them that his whole business was to
afflict them. It was generally believed among them that their gen-
eral, Michele, had been unjustly deposed and excommunicated. In
a large assembly of friars he had said, " I wish that antipope was
a Dominican, or of some other Order," when another rejoined, " I
rejoice still more that the antipope is of our Order, for if he was
of another we should have no friend, and now at least we have the
Italian," whereat all present applauded. For a while Frore Bar-
thelemi held out, but imprisonment with threats of chains and
fasting broke down his resolution, and he threw himself upon the
mercy of the inquisitor, Henri de Chamay. That mercy consisted
in a sentence of harsh prison for life, with chains on hands and
feet and bread and water for food. Possibly the Dominican in-
quisitor may have felt pleasure in exhibiting a Franciscan pris-
oner, for he allowed Barthelemi to retain his habit ; and it shows
the minute care of John's vindictiveness that a year later he wrote
expressly to Henri de Chamay reciting that, as the delinquent had
been expelled from the Order, the habit must be stripped from
him and be delivered to the Franciscan authorities.*
In Germany the Franciscans for the most part remained faith-
ful to Michele and Louis, and were of the utmost assistance to the
latter in the struggle. The test was the observance of the inter-
dict which for so many years suspended divine service throughout
the empire, and was a sore trial to the faithful. To a great ex-
tent this was disregarded by the Franciscans. It was to little
purpose that, in January, 1331, John issued a special bull directed
against them, deprived of all privileges and immunities those who
recognized Louis as emperor and celebrated services in interdicted
places, and ordered all prelates and inquisitors to prosecute them.
On the other hand, Louis was not behindhand in enforcing obedi-
ence by persecution wherever he had the power. An imperial
brief of June, 1330, addressed to the magistrates of Aix, directs
them to assist and protect those teachers of the truth, the Fran-
ciscans Siegelbert of Landsberg and John of Eoyda, and to im-
prison all their brethren whom they may designate as rebels to
the empire and to the Order until the general, Michele, shall de-
cide what is to be done with them. This shows that even in Ger-
* Doat, XXVII. 202-3, 229 ; XXXV. 87.
154 THE FRATICELLI.
many the Order was not unanimous, but doubtless the honest
Franciscan, John of Winterthur, reflects the feelings of the great
body when he says that the reader will be struck with horror and
stupor on learning the deeds with which the pope convulsed the
Church. Inflamed by some madness, he sought to argue against
the poverty of Christ, and when the Franciscans resisted him he
persecuted them without measure. The Dominicans encouraged
him, and he largely rewarded them. The traditional enmity be-
tween the Orders found ample gratification. The Dominicans, to
excite contempt for the Franciscans, exhibited paintings of Christ
with a purse, putting in his hand to take out mone}r ; nay, to the
horror of the faithful, on the walls of their monasteries, in the
most frequented places, they pictured Christ hanging on the cross
with one hand nailed fast, and with the other putting money in a
pouch suspended from his girdle. Yet rancor and religious zeal
did not wholly extinguish patriotism among the Dominicans ; they
were, moreover, aggrieved by the sentence of heresy passed upon
Master Eckart, which may perhaps explain the fact that Tauler
supported Louis, as also did Margaret Ebner, one of the Friends
of God, and the most eminent Dominican sister of the day. It is
true that many Dominican convents were closed for years, and
their inmates scattered and exiled for persistently refusing to cele-
brate, but others complied unwillingly with the papal mandates.
At Landshut they had ceased public service, but when the em-
peror came there they secretly arranged with the Duke of Teck
to assail their house with torches and threaten to burn it down, so
that they might have the excuse of constraint for resuming public
worship, and the comedy was successfully carried out. In fact,
the General Chapter of 1328 complained that in Germany the
brethren in many places were notably negligent in publishing the
papal bulls about Louis.*
All this, however, was but an episode in the political struggle,
which was to be decided by the rivalries between the houses of
"Wittelsbach, Hapsburg, and Luxemburg, and the intrigues of
France. Louis gradually succeeded in arousing and centring
* Martene Thesaur. II. 826-8.— Carl Muller, op. cit. I. 239.— Vitodurani Chron.
(Eccard. Corp. Hist. I. 1798, 1800, 1844-5, 1871).— Andreas Ratisponens. Chron.
ann. 1336 (Ibid. I. 2103-4).— Preger, Der Rirchenpolitische Kampf, pp. 42-5.—
Denifle, Archiv fur Litt.- u. Kircbengescbichte, 1886. p. 624.
THE EMPIRE AND THE PAPACY. 155
upon himself the national spirit, aided therein by the arrogant dis-
dain with which John XXII. and his successors received his re-
peated offers of qualified submission. When, in 1330, Louis had
temporarily secured the support of John of Luxemburg, King of
Bohemia, and the Duke of Austria, and they offered themselves
as sureties that he would fulfil what might be required of him,
provided the independence of the empire was recognized, John re-
torted that Louis was a heretic and thus incapacitated ; he was
a thief and a robber, a wicked man who consorted with Michele,
Ockham, Bonagrazia, and Marsiglio ; not only had he no title to
the empire, but the state of Christendom would be inconceivably
deplorable if he were recognized. After the death of John in De-
cember, 1334, another attempt was made, but it suited the policy
of France and of Bohemia to prolong the strife, and Benedict XII.
was as firm as his predecessor. Louis was at all times ready to
sacrifice his Franciscan allies, but the papacy demanded the right
practically to dictate who should be emperor, and by a skilful use
of appeals to the national pride Louis gradually won the support
of an increasing number of states and cities. In 1338 the con-
vention of Rhense and the Reichstag of Frankfort formally pro-
claimed as a part of the law of the empire that the choice of the
electors was final, and that the papacy had no confirmatory power.
The interdict was ordered not to be observed, and in all the states
adhering to Louis ecclesiastics were given the option of resuming
public worship within eight days or of undergoing a ten years'
exile. It was some relief to them in this dilemma that the Bo-
man curia sold absolutions in such cases for a florin.*
In the strife between Louis and the papacy the little colony of
Franciscan refugees at Munich was of the utmost service to the
imperial cause, but their time was drawing to an end. Michele
da Cesena died November 29, 1342, his latest work being a long
manifesto proving that John had died an unrepentant heretic, and
that his successors in defending his errors were likewise heretics ;
if but one man in Christendom holds the true faith, that man in
* Martene Thesaur. II. 800-6. — Raynald. ann. 1336, No. 31-5. — Vitoduran
Chron. (Eccard. Corp. Hist. I. 1842-5, 1910). — Preger, Der Kirchenpolitische
Kampf, p. 33.— Hartzheim IV. 323-32.— H. Mutii Germ. Chron. ann. 1338 (Pis-
torii Germ. Scriptt. II. 878-81).
156 THE FRATICELLI.
himself is the Church. The dithyrambic palinode which passes
as his death-bed recantation is clearly a forgery, and there can be
no doubt that Michele persisted to the end. When dying he
handed the seal of the Order over to William of Ockham, who
used it as Vicar-general ; he had already, in April, 1342, appointed
two citizens of Munich. John Schito and Grimold Treslo, as syn-
dics and procurators of the Order, the latter of whom subsequent-
ly assumed the generalate. Bonagrazia died in June, 1347, de-
claring with the last breath of his indomitable soul that the cause
of Louis was righteous. The date of William of Ockham's death
is uncertain, but it occurred between 1347 and 1350. -
Thus dropped off, one by one, the men who had so gallantly
defended the doctrine of the poverty of Christ. As regards the
political conceptions which were the special province of Marsiglio
and Ockham. their work was done, and they could exercise no
further influence over the uncontrollable march of events. With
the death of Benedict XII., in 1342, Louis made renewed efforts
for pacification, but John of Bohemia was intriguing to secure the
succession for his house, and they were fruitless, except to strength-
en Louis by demonstrating the impossibility of securing terms
tolerable to the empire. Still the intrigue went on. and in July,
1346, the three ecclesiastical electors, Mainz, Treves, and Cologne,
with Kodolph of Saxony, and John of Bohemia, assembled at
Rhense under the impulsion of Clement VI. and elected the son
of John, Charles Margrave of Moravia, as a rival king of the
Bomans. The movement, however, had no basis of popular sup-
port, and when Louis hastened to the Bhinelands all the cities and
nearly all the princes and nobles adhered to him. Had the election
been postponed for a few weeks it would never have taken place,
for the next month occurred the battle of Crecy, where the gallant
knight, John of Bohemia, died a chivalrous death, Charles, the
newly-elected king, saved his life by flight, and French influence
was temporarily eclipsed. Thus unauspiciously commenced, the
reign of Charles IY. had little promise of duration, when, in Octo-
* Vitoduran Chron. (Eccard. 1. 1844). — Sachsische Weltchronik. dritte bairisch
Fortsetzung No. 9 (Pertz II. 346).— Baluz. et Mansi III. 349-55.— Muratori S. R.
I. III. ii. 513-27.— Jac. de Marchia Dial. (Bal. et Mansi II. 600).— Preger, op. cit
pp. 35-6.— Carl Miiller, op. cit. I. 370-2.— Chron. Glassberger ann. 1342, 1347.
SPIRIT OF THE EMPIRE. 157
ber, 1347, Louis, while indulging in his favorite pastime of hunting,
was struck with apoplexy and fell dead from his horse. The hand
of God might well be traced in the removal of all the enemies of
the Holy See, and Charles had no further organized opposition to
dread.*
Desirous of obtaining the fullest advantage from this unlooked-
for good-fortune, Clement YI. commissioned the Archbishop of
Prague and the Bishop of Bamberg to reconcile all communities and
individuals who had incurred excommunication by supporting the
Bavarian, with a formula of absolution by which they were obliged
to swear that they held.it heresy for an emperor to depose a pope,
and that they would never obey an emperor until he had been ap-
proved by the pope. This excited intense disgust, and in many
places it could not be enforced. The teachings of Marsiglio and
Ockham had at least borne fruit in so far that the papal preten-
sions to virtually controlling the empire were disdainfully rejected.
The German spirit thus aroused is well exemplified by what oc-
curred at Basle, a city which had observed the interdict and was
eager for its removal. When Charles and the Bishop of Bamberg
appeared before the gates they were received by the magistrates
and a great crowd of citizens. Conrad of Barenfels, the burgo-
master, addressed the bishop : " My Lord of Bamberg, you must
know that we do not believe, nor will we confess, that our late
lord, the Emperor Louis, ever was a heretic. Whomsoever the
electors or a majority of them shall choose as King of the Romans
we will hold as such, whether he applies to the pope or not, nor
will we do anything else that is contrary to the rights of the em-
pire. But if you have power from the pope and are willing to re-
mit all our sins, so be it." Then, turning to the people, he called
out, " Do you give to me and to Conrad Miinch power to ask for
the absolution of your sins ?" The crowd shouted assent ; the
two Conrads took an oath in accordance with this ; divine services
were resumed, and the king and bishop entered the town.f
* Schmidt, Pabstliche Urkunden und Regesten, p. 362. — Henr. Rebdorff.
Annal. ann. 1346-7 (Freher et Stniv. I. 626-8).
f Henr. Rebdorff. Annal. ann. 1347 (Freher et Struv. I. 628).— Matthias Neu-
burg. (Albert. Argentinens.) Chron. ann. 1348 (Urstisii II. 142-3). — Preger, Der
Kirch enpolitische Karnpf, pp. 56-60.
158 THE FRATICELLI.
Yet the question as to the poverty of Christ, which had been
put forward by John and Louis as the ostensible cause of quarrel,
and which had been so warmly embraced by a portion at least of
the German Franciscans, sank completely out of sight north of the
Alps with the death of Louis and the extinction of the Munich
colony of refugees. Germany had her own hordes of mendicants,
regular and irregular, in the Beguines and Beghards, who seem
to have troubled themselves but little about points so purely specu-
lative ; and though we occasionally hear of Fraticelli in those
regions, it is rather as a convenient name employed by monkish
chroniclers than as really representing a distinctive sect.
It was otherwise in the South, and especially in Italy, the
native home of Franciscanism and of the peculiar influences which
moulded the special ascetic development of the Order. There the
impulses which had led the earlier Spirituals to endure the ex-
tremity of persecution in vindication of the holiness of absolute
poverty were still as strong as ever. Under Boniface and Clement
and during the earlier years of John its professors had lain in
hiding or had sought the friendly refuge of Sicily. In the con-
fusion of the Franciscan schism they had emerged and multiplied.
With the downfall of the antipope and the triumph of John they
were once more proscribed. In the quarrel over the poverty of
Christ, that tenet had naturally become the distinguishing mark
of the sectaries, and its condemnation by John necessarily entailed
the consequence of denying the papal authority and asserting the
heresy of the Holy See. Yet there can be no doubt that among the
austerer members of the orthodox Order who accepted the defini-
tions of the papacy there was much sympathy felt for the rebellious
dissidents. Resistance to the imperious will of John XXII. having
failed, there were abundant stories of visions and miracles circu-
lated from convent to convent, as to the wrath of God and of St.
Francis visited upon those who infringed upon the holy vow of
poverty. The Liber Conformitatum is manifestly the expression of
the aspirations of those who wished to enforce the Rule in all its
strictness as the direct revelation of the Holy Spirit. Such men
felt that the position of their proscribed brethren was logically cor-
rect, and they were unable to reconcile the decrees of Xicholas III.
with those of John XXII. One of these, described as a man much
beloved of God, applied to St. Birgitta to resolve his doubts, where-
ITALIAN FRATICELLI FAVORED. 159
upon she had two visions in which the Virgin sent him her com-
mands to say to all who believed that the pope was no pope, and
that priests do not truly consecrate the host in the mass, that they
were heretics filled with diabolical iniquity. All this points to a
strong secret sympathy with the Fraticelli which extended not
only among the people, but among the friars and occasionally
even among the prelates, explaining the ability of the sectaries to
maintain their existence from generation to generation in spite of
almost unremitting persecution by the Inquisition.*
In 1335, one of the earliest cares of Benedict XII. after his
accession was the repression of these Fratres de paupere Vita, as
they styled themselves. They still in many places publicly dis-
played their contumacy by wearing the short and narrow gowns
of the Spirituals. They still held Michele to be their general, in-
sulted the memory of John XXII., and were earnestly and success-
fully engaged in proselytism. Moreover, they were openly protect-
ed by men of rank and power. All the inquisitors, from Treviso
and Lombardy to Sicily, were commanded to free the Church from
these impious hypocrites by vigorous action, and directions were
sent to the prelates to lend efficient assistance. There were some,
at least, of the latter who did not respond, for in 1336 Francesco,
Bishop of Camerino, and Giacopo, Bishop of Firmo, were sum-
moned to answer for favoring the sectaries and permitting them
to live in their dioceses. The whole Order, in fact, was still in-
fected with these dangerous doctrines, and could not be brought
to view the dissidents with proper abhorrence. Benedict com-
plained that in the kingdom of Naples many Franciscan convents
gave shelter to these perverse brethren, and in a bull regulating
the Order issued this same year he alludes to those among them
who wear peculiar vestments and, under a pretended exterior of
sanctity, maintain heresies condemned by the Church of Home;
all such, together with those who protect them, are to be impris-
oned until they submit. It was not always easy to enforce obedi-
ence to these mandates. The Bishop of Camerino was stubborn,
and the next year, 1337, Fra Giovanni di Borgo, the inquisitor of
* Wadding, ann. 1330, No. 14-15.— Alvar. Pelag. de Planet. Eccles. Lib. 11.
art. 51 (fol. 169 a).— Lib. Conformitatum Lib. 1. Fruct. ix. p. ii.— Revel. S. Brigit-
t£e Lib. vii. c. 8.
160 THE FRATICELLI.
the Mark of Ancona, was instructed to proceed severely against
him and other fautors of these heretics. By his active operations
Fra Giovanni incurred the ill-will of the nobles of his district, who
had sufficient influence with the general, Gerard Odo, to procure
his replacement by his associate Giacomo and subsequently by Si-
mone da Ancona, but the Cardinal Legate Bertrand intervened,
and Benedict restored him with high encomiums on his efficiency.
Although persecution was thus active, it is probable that few of
the sectaries had the spirit of martyrdom, and that they recanted
under pressure, but there was no hesitation in inflicting the full
punishment of heresy on those who were persistent. June 3, 1337,
at Venice, Fra Francesco da Pistoia was burned for pertinaciously
asserting the poverty of Christ in contempt of the definitions of
John XXII., nor was he the only victim.*
The test of heresy, as I have said, was the assertion that Christ
and the apostles held no property. This appears from the abjura-
tion of Fra Francesco d? Ascoli in 1344, who recants that belief
and declares that in accordance with the bulls of John XXII. he
holds it to be heretical. That such continued to be the customary
formula appears from Eymerich, who instructs his inquisitor to
make the penitent declare under oath, " I swear that I believe in
my heart and profess that our Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles
while in this mortal life held in common the things which Scrip-
ture declares them to have had, and that they had the right of
giving, selling, and alienating theni." f
The heresy was thus so purely an artificial one, created by the
Holy See, that perhaps it is not difficult to understand the sym-
pathy excited by these poor and self-denying ascetics, who bore all
the external marks of what the Church had for ages taught to be
exceeding holiness. Camerino continued to be a place of refuge.
In 1343 Clement VI. ordered the Bishops of Ancona and Osimo to
cite before him within three months Gentile, Lord of Camerino,
for various offences, among which was protecting the Fraticelli,
impeding the inquisitors in the prosecution of tbeir duties, and de-
* Wadding, ann. 1335, No. 10-11: ami. 1336, No. 1; ann. 1337, No. 1; aim.
1339. No. 1.— Raynald. aim. 1335, No. 63 ; ann. 1336, No. 63, 64, 66-7 ; ann. 1337,
No. 30; ann. 1375, No. 64. — Comba, La Riforma in Italia, I. 328.— Vit. Prima
Benedict! XII. ann. 1337 (Muratori S. R. I. III. n. 531).
f D'Argentre I. i. 345. — Eymeric. p. 486.
THE HERESY OPENLY DEFENDED. 161
spising for several years the excommunication which they had
pronounced against him. Even the inquisitors themselves, espe-
cially in Franciscan districts, were not always earnest in the work,
possibly because there was little prospect of profitable confiscations
to be procured from those who regarded the possession of property
as a sin, and in 1346 Clement found himself obliged to reprove them
sharply for their tepidity. In such districts the Fraticelli showed
themselves with little concealment. "When, in 1348, Cola di Eienzo
fled from Rome after his first tribuneship, he betook himself to
the Fraticelli of Monte Maiella ; he was charmed with their holi-
ness and poverty, entered the Order as a Tertiary, and deplored
that men so exemplary should be persecuted by the pope and the
Inquisition. Tuscany was full of them. It was in vain that about
this period Florence adopted severe laws for their repression, plac-
ing them under the ban, empowering any one to capture them
and deliver them to the Inquisition, and imposing a fine of five
hundred lire on any official declining, when summoned by the in-
quisitors, to assist in their arrest. The very necessity of enacting
such laws shows how difficult it was to stimulate the people to
join the persecution. Even this appears to have been ineffectual.
There is extant a letter from Giovanni delle Celle of Vallombrosa
to Tommaso di Neri, a Fraticello of Florence, in which the former
attacks the fatuity of the latter in making an idol of poverty ; the
letter was answered and led to a controversy which seems to have
been conducted openly.*
Yet, trivial as was apparently the point at issue, it was impos-
sible that men could remain contentedly under the ban of the
Church without being forced to adopt principles destructive of the
whole ecclesiastical organization. They could only justify them-
selves by holding that the}^ were the true Church, that the papacy
was heretical and had forfeited its claim of obedience, and could
no longer guide the faithful to salvation. It is an interest-
ing proof of the state of public opinion in Italy, that in spite of
the thoroughly organized machinery of persecution, men who held
these doctrines were able to disseminate them almost publicly and
* Werunsky Excerptt. ex Registt. Clem. PP. VI. pp. 23-4. — Raynald. ann.
1346, No. 70— Comba, La Riforma, I. 326-7, 387.— Lami, Antichita Toscane, pp.
528, 595.
III.— 11
162 THE FRATICELLI.
to make numerous proselytes. About the middle of the century
they circulated throughout Italy a document written in the ver-
nacular, " so that it can be understood by every one," giving their
reasons for separating themselves from pope and prelate. It is
singularly temperate in tone and logical in structure. The argu-
ment is drawn strictly from Scripture and from the utterances of
the Church itself, and from even the standpoint of a canonist it is
unanswerable. There are no apocalyptic hysterics, no looking for-
ward to Antichrist or to new ages of the world, no mysticism.
There is not even any reference to St. Francis, nor an}^ claim that
his Kule is inspired and inviolable. Yet none the less the whole
body of the Church is declared to be heretic, and all the faithful
are summoned to cut loose from it.
The reasons alleged for this are three — First, heresy ; second,
simony ; third, fornication. As to the first, John XXII. is proved
to be a heretic by the bulls pronouncing heretical the doctrine that
Christ and the apostles possessed nothing. This is easily done by
reason of the definitions of the previous popes confirmed by the
Council of Yienne. The corollary of course follows that all his
successors and their cardinals are heretics. As regards simony,
the canons of the Decretum and the utterances of the doctors are
quoted to show that it is heresy. As regards fornication, it was
easy to cite the canons embodying the Hiidebrandine doctrine that
the sacraments of fornicating priests are not to be received. It is
true that there are many priests who are not fornicators, but there
are none who are not simonists — who have not given or received
money for the sacraments. Even if he could be found who is in-
nocent on all these heads, it would be necessary for him to sepa-
rate himself from the rest, for, as Raymond of Pennaf orte shows in
his Summa, those are guilty of mortal sin and idolatry who receive
the sacraments of heretics. The Fraticelli, therefore, have been
obliged to withdraw from a heretical church, and they issue this
manifesto to justify their course. If in any way it is erroneous,
they ask to have the error pointed out ; and if it is correct, the
faithful are bound to join them, because, after the facts are known.,
association with prelates and clergy thus heretical and excommuni-
cate will involve in heresy all who are guilty of it.*
» Comba, La Riforma, I. 568-71.
INFLUENCE OF JOACHIM. 163
All the Fraticelli, however, were not uniformly agreed upon all
points. In the above document a leading argument is drawn from
the assumed vitiation of the sacraments in polluted hands a dan-
gerous tenet, constantly recurring to plague the successors of
Hildebrand — which we do not find in other utterances of the sec-
taries. In fact, we find them, in 1362, divided into two branches,
one of which recognized as its leader Tommaso, ex-Bishop of
Aquino, and held that as John XXII. and his successors were
heretics, the sacrament of ordination derived from them was void,
and reordination was required of all ecclesiastics entering the sect.
The other, which took its name from Felipe of Majorca, was reg-
ularly organized under a general minister, and, while equally re-
garding the popes as heretics, recognized the ordinations of the
establishment. All branches of the sect, however, drew ample
store of reasons from the venality and corruption of the Church,
which was doubtless their most convincing argument with the
people. There is extant a letter in the vulgar tongue from a f rate
to two female devotees, arguing, like the more formal manifesto,
that they are bound to withdraw from the communion of the
heretical church. This is the beast with seven horns, which are : 1,
supreme pride ; 2, supreme cruelty ; .3, supreme folly or wrath ; 4,
supreme deceit and inimitable falsehood ; 5, supreme carnality or
lust ; 6, supreme cupidity or avarice ; 7, supreme hatred of truth,
or malice. The ministers of this heretic church have no shame in
publicly keeping concubines, and in selling Christ for money in the
sacraments. This letter further indicates the legitimate descent
of the Fraticelli from the Spirituals by a quotation from Joachim
to show that St. Francis is Noah, and the faithful few of his chil-
dren are those who are saved with him in the Ark.*
A still closer connection may be inferred from a bull of Urban
V., issued about 1365, instructing inquisitors to be active in exter-
minating heretics, and describing for their information the differ-
ent heresies. The Fraticelli are represented as indulging in glut-
tony and lasciviousness under the cover of strict external sanctity,
pretending to be Franciscan Tertiaries, and begging publicly or
living in their own houses. It is possible, however, that his de-
* Tocco, Archivio Storico Napoletano, 1887, Fasc. 1. — Comba, La Rifonna, T.
321-4.
164: THE FRATICELLI.
scription of their holding assemblies in which they read Olivi's
" Postil on the Apocalypse " and his other works, but chiefly the. ac-
count of his death, is rather borrowed from Bernard Gui's account
of the Spirituals of Languedoc, than a correct statement of the
customs of the Fraticelli of his time."
Of the final shape which the heresy assumed we have an au-
thoritative account from its ruthless exterminator, the Inquisitor
Giacomo della Marca. In his " Dialogue with a Fraticello," written
about 1450, there is no word about the follies of the Spirituals, or
any extraneous dogmas. The question turns wholly on the pov-
erty of Christ and the heresy of John's definitions of the doctrine.
The Fraticelli stigmatize the orthodox as Joannistae, and in turn
are called Michaelistae, showing that by this time the extrava-
gances of the Spirituals had been forgotten, and that the heretics
were the direct descendants of the schismatic Franciscans who
followed Michele da Cesena, The disorders and immorality of
the clergy still afforded them their most effective arguments in
their active missionary work. Giacomo complains that they
abused the minds of the simple by representing the priests as
simonists and concubinarians, and that the people, imbued with
this poison, lost faith in the clergy, refused to confess to them, to
attend their masses, to receive their sacraments, and to pay their
tithes, thus becoming heretics and pagans and children of the
devil, while fancying themselves children of God.t
The Fraticelli thus formed one or more separate organizations,
each of which asserted itself to be the only true Church. In the
scanty information which we possess, it is impossible to trace in
detail the history of the fragmentary parts into which they split,
and we can only say in general terms that the sect did not consist
simply of anchorites and friars, but had its regular clergy and
laity, its bishops and their supreme head or pope, known as the
Bishop of Philadelphia, that being the name assigned to the com-
munity. In 1357 this position was filled by Tommaso, the ex-
Bishop of Aquino ; chance led to the discovery of such a pope in
Perugia in 1374 ; in 1429 we happen to know that a certain Eai-
naldo filled the position, and shortly after a frate named Gabriel.
* Martini Append, ad Mosheirn de Beghardis p. 505.
t Jac. de Marchia Dial. (Baluz. et Mansi II. 595 sqq.).
ACTIVE PERSECUTION. 165
There is even talk of a chief of the laity who styled himself Em-
peror of the Christians.*
It was in vain that successive popes ordered the Inquisition to
take the most active measures for the suppression of the sect, and
that occasional holocausts rewarded their exertions, as when, under
Urban V. nine were burned at Yiterbo, and in 1389 Fra Michele
Berti de Calci suffered the same fate at Florence. This last case
reveals in its details the popular sympathy which favored the
labors of the Fraticelli. Fra Michele had been sent to Florence
as a missionary by a congregation of the sect which met in a cav-
ern in the Mark of Ancona. He preached in Florence and made
many converts, and was about leaving the city, April 19, when
he was betrayed by five female zealots, who sent for him pretend-
ing to seek conversion. His trial was short. A colleague saved
his life by recantation, but Michele was firm. When brought up
in judgment to be degraded from the priesthood he refused to
kneel before the bishop, saying that heretics are not to be knelt
to. In walking to the place of execution many of the crowd ex-
changed words of cheer with him, leading to considerable disturb-
ance, and when tied to a stake in a sort of cabin which was to be
set on fire, a number put their heads inside to beg him to recant.
The place was several times filled with smoke to frighten him,
but he was unyielding, and after his incremation there were many
people, we are told, who regarded him as a saint, f
Proceedings such as this were not likely to diminish the favor
with which the Fraticelli were popularly regarded. The two Sici-
lies continued to be thoroughly interpenetrated with the heresy.
When, in 1362, Luigi di Durazzo made his abortive attempt at
rebellion, he regarded the popularity of the Fraticelli as an ele-
* Raynald. ann. 1344, No. 8; 1357, No. 12; 1374, No. 14.— Jac. de Marchia
Dial. (I c. 599, 608-9).
It may surprise a modern infallibilist to learn that so thoroughly orthodox
and learned an inquisitor as the blessed Giacomo della Marca admits that there
have been heretic popes — popes who persisted and died in their heresy. He
comforts himself, however, with the reflection that they have always been suc-
ceeded by Catholic pontiffs (1. c. p. 599).
t Werunsky, Excerptt. ex Registt. Clem. VI. et Innoc. VI. p. 91. — Raynald.
ann. 1354, No. 31; ann. 1368, No. 16.— Wadding, ann. 1354, No. 6-7; 1368, No.
4-6.— Comba, La Riforma, I. 327, 329-37.— Cantu, Eretici d1 Italia, I. 133-4.—
Eymeric. p. 328.
166 THE FRATICELLI.
ment of sufficient importance for him to publicly proclaim sym-
pathy with them, to collect them around him, and have Tommaso
of Aquino celebrate mass for him. Francesco Marchisio, Arch-
deacon of Salerno, was a Fraticello, in spite of which he was ele-
vated to the see of Trivento in 1362, and occupied it till his death
about twenty years later. In 1372 Gregory XI. was shocked to
learn that in Sicily the bones of Fraticelli were venerated as the
relics of saints, that chapels and churches were built in their honor,
and that on their anniversaries the populace flocked thither with
candles to worship them ; but it is not likely that his instructions
to the inquisitors to put an end to these unseemly manifestations
of mistaken piety were successful. At Perugia, in 1368, the mag-
istrates were induced to throw many of the Fraticelli into prison,
but to so little purpose that the people persisted in regarding them
as the true children of St. Francis and in giving them shelter, while
the Franciscans were despised on account of the laxity of their
observance, the luxury of their houses, the costliness of their vest-
ments, and the profusion of their table. They were ridiculed and
insulted in the streets until they scarce dared to venture in public ;
if one chanced to let the collar of his shirt show above his gown,
some one would pull up the linen and ask the jeering crowd if this
was the austerity of St. Francis. As a last resort, in 1374, they
sent for Paoluccio of Foligno and a public disputation was arranged
with the Fraticelli. Paoluccio turned the tide of popular favor
by proving that obedience to the pope was of greater moment than
obedience to the Eule, and the Fraticelli were driven from the
town. Even then the Inquisition seems not to have dared to pros-
ecute them.*
The proselyting efforts of the Fraticelli were by no means con-
fined to Italy. Believing themselves the only true Church, it was
their duty to carry salvation throughout the world, and there were
* Tocco, Archivio Storico Napoletano, 1887, Fasc. 1. — Raynald. ann. 1368,
No. 16; ann. 1372, No. 36.— Wadding, ann. 1374, No. 19-23.— Pet. Rodulphii
Hist. Seraph. Relig. Lib. n. fol. 154 a.
Perugia at this period was a centre of religious excitement. A certain Piero
Garigh, who seems to have been in some way connected with the Fraticelli, gave
himself out as the Son of God, and dignified his disciples with the names of
apostles. In the brief allusion which we have to him he is said to have obtained
ten of these and to be in search of an eleventh. His fate is not recorded. — Pro-
cessus contra Valdenses (Archivio Storico Italiano, 1865, No. 39, p. 50).
THEIR MISSIONARY ZEAL. 167
earnest spirits among them who were ready to dare as much as
the orthodox among the infidels and barbarians. Already, in 1344,
Clement VI. found himself obliged go address the archbishops, bish-
ops, and all the faithful throughout Armenia, Persia, and the East,
warning them against these emissaries of Satan, who were seek-
ing to scatter among them the seeds of error and schism. He had
no inquisitors to call upon in those regions, but he ordered the prel-
ates to inquire after them and to punish them, authorizing them,
with a singular lack of perception, to invoke, if necessary, the aid
of the secular arm. The Fraticelli made at least one convert of
importance, for in 1346 Clement felt himself obliged to cite for
appearance within four months no less a personage than the Arch-
bishop of Seleucia, who, infected with pseudo-minorite errors, had
written in Armenian and was circulating throughout Asia a postil
on St. John in which he asserted the forbidden doctrine of the
poverty of Christ. In 1354 Innocent VI. heard of Fraticellian
missionaries laboring among the Chazars of the Crimea, and he
forthwith ordered the Bishop of Caffa to repress them with inquis-
itorial methods. In 1375 Gregory XI. learned that they were
active in Egypt, Syria, and Asia, and he promptly ordered the
Franciscan provincial of those regions to enforce on them the se-
verity of the laws. One, named Lorenzo Carbonello, had ventured
to Tunis, to infect with his heresy the Christians of that kingdom,
whereupon Gregory commanded Giacomo Patani and Guillen de
Ripoll, the captains of the Christian troops in the service of the
Bey of Tunis, to seize him and send him in chains to the Arch-
bishop of Naples or of Pisa. Doubtless, if the command was
obeyed, it led the unthinking Moslem to thank Allah that they
were not Christians.*
In Languedoc and Provence the rigorous severity with which
the Spirituals had been exterminated seems to have exercised a
wholesome influence in repressing the Fraticelli, but nevertheless
a few cases on record shows the existence of the sect. In 1336 we
hear of a number confined in the papal dungeons of Avignon —
among them a papal chaplain — and that Guillaume Lombard, the
judge of ecclesiastical causes, was ordered to exert against them
* Raynald. aim. 1344, No. 8 ; ann. 1346, No. 70 ; ann. 1354, No. 31 ; ann. 1375,
No. 27.
16S THE FRATICELLI.
the full severity of the lavs. In 1354 two Tuscan Fraticelli, Gio-
vanni da Castigiione and Francesco d' Arquata. were arrested at
Montpellier for holding that John XXII. had forfeited his author-
ity by altering the definitions of the bull Exiit, and that his suc-
cessors were not the true Church. Innocent VI. caused them
to be brought before him, but all efforts to make them recant
were vain ; they went tranquilly to the stake, singing Gloria in
excelsis, and were reverenced as martyrs by a large number of
their brethren. Two others, named Jean de Xarbonne and Mau-
rice had not long before met the same fate at Avignon. In north-
ern France we hear little of the heresy. The only recorded case
seems to be that of Denis Soulechat. a professor of the University
of Paris, who taught in 1363 that the law of divine love does away
with property, and that Christ and the apostles held none. Sum-
moned by the Inquisitor Guillaume Eochin, he abjured before the
Faculty and then appealed to the pope. At Avignon, when he
endeavored to purge himself before an assembly of theologians,
he only added new errors to his old ones, and was sent back to
the Cardinal of Beauvais and the Sorbonne with orders to make
him recant, and to punish him properly with the advice of the
inquisitor. In 136S he was forced to a public abjuration.*
In Spam a few cases show that the heresy extended across
the Pyrenees. In Valencia, Fray Jayme Justi and the Tertianes
Guillermo Gelabert and Marti Petri, when arrested by E. de
Masqueta. commissioner of the Inquisitor Leonardo de Puycerda,
appealed to Clement VI., who ordered the Bishop of Valencia to
release them on their giving bail not to leave the city until their
case should be decided at Avignon. They must have had wealthy
disciples, for security was furnished in the heavy sum of thirty
thousand sols, and they were discharged from prison. The papal
court was in no hurry with the case — probably it was forgotten —
when, in 1353, Clement learned that the two Tertiaries were dead,
and that Justi was in the habit of leaving the city and spreading
his pestiferous doctrines among the people. He therefore ordered
* Raynald. aim. 1336, Xo. 64; ann. 1351. Xo. 31; aim. 1368, Xo. 16-7.— Ar-
chives de rinq. de Carcass. (Doat, XXXV. 130). — Mosheiins Ketz'-rgeschichte L
387. — Henr. Rebdorff Annal. ann. 1353 (Freher et Stray. I. 632).— Eymeric.
p. 358.— D'Argentrg, I. i. 383-6.
THE HERESY IN SPAIN. 169
Hugo, Bishop of Valencia, and the Inquisitor Nicolas Roselli to
prosecute the case forthAvith. Justi must have recanted, for he
was merely imprisoned for life, while the bones of the two Terti-
aries were dug up and burned. Even more obdurate was Fray
Arnaldo Mutaner, who for nineteen years infected Puycerda and
Urgel with the same heresy. He was contumacious and refused
to appear when summoned to abjure. After consultation with
Gregory XL, Berenger Darili, Bishop of Urgel, condemned him,
and so did Eymerich. Pursuit apparently grew hot, and he fled
to the East. The last we hear of him is in 1373, when Gregory
ordered his vicar, the Franciscan Arnaud, to seize him and send
him in chains to the papal court, but whether the effort was
successful we have no means of knowing. A bull of Martin
Y. in 1426 shows the continued existence of Fraticelli in Ara-
gon and Catalonia, and the necessity of active measures for their
extirpation.*
It was probably a heresy of the same nature which, in 1442,
was discovered in Durango, Biscay. The heresiarch was the Fran-
ciscan Alonso de Mella, brother of Juan, Cardinal-bishop of Za-
mora, and the sectaries were known as Cerceras. The story that
Alonso taught indiscriminate sexual intercourse is doubtless one
of the customary exaggerations. King Juan II., in the absence
of the Inquisition, sent the Franciscan, Francisco de Soria, and
Juan Alonso Cherino, Abbot of Alcala la Real, to investigate the
matter, with two alguazils and a sufficient force. The heretics
were seized and carried, some to Valladolid and some to Santo
Domingo de la Calcada, where torture was used to extract con-
fession, and the obstinate ones were burned in considerable num-
bers. Fray Alonso de Mella, however, managed to escape and
fled to Granada, it is said, with some of his girls ; but he did not
avert his fate, for he was acanavereado by the Moors — that is, put
to a lingering death with pointed sticks. The affair must have
made a profound impression on the popular mind, for even until
modern times the people of Durango were reproached by their
neighbors with the " autos de Fray Alonso" and in 1828 an over-
zealous alcalde, to obliterate all record of the matter, burned the
* Ripoll II. 245.— Eymeric. pp. 266-7.— Raynald. aim. 1373, No. 19; ami. 1426,
No. 18.— Wadding, ann. 1371, No. 26-30.
170 THE FRATICELLI.
original documents of the process, which till then had reposed
quietly among the records of the parish church.*
The violent measures of John XXII., followed up by his suc-
cessors, for a while effectually repressed the spiritual asceticism
of the Franciscans. Yet it was impossible that impulses which
were so marked a characteristic of the age should be wholly oblit-
erated in an Order in which they had become traditional. AVe
see this in the kindness manifested by the Franciscans to the Fra-
ticelli when it could be done without too much risk, and we cannot
doubt that there were many who aspired to imitate the founder
without daring to overleap the bounds of obedience. Such men
could not but look with alarm and disgust at the growing world-
liness of the Order under the new dispensation of John. ^Vhen
the Provincial of Tuscany could lav aside five hundred florins out
of the alms given to his brethren, and then lend this sum to the
Hospital of S. Maria of Siena at ten per cent, per annum, although
so flagrant a violation of his vows and of the canons against usurv
brought upon him the penalty of degradation, it required a divine
visitation to impress his sin upon the minds of his fellows, and he
died in 1373 in great agony and without the sacraments. Various
other manfestations about the same time indicate the magnitude
of the evil and the impossibility of suppressing it by human means.
Under Boniface IX., Franciscans, we are told, were in the habit
of seeking dispensations to enable them to hold benefices and even
pluralities ; and the pope decreed that any Mendicant desiring to
be transferred to a non-Mendicant Order should, as a preliminary,
pay a hundred gold florins to the papal camera. Under such a
system there could be scarce a pretence of maintaining the holy
poverty which had been the ideal of Francis and his followers. t
Yet the ardent thirst of poverty and the belief that in it lay
the only assured path to salvation were too widely diffused to
be repressed. Giovanni Colombini, a rich and ambitious citizen
* Garibay, Comp. Historial de Espana, Lib. xyi. c. 31. — La Puente, Epit. de
la Cronica de Juan II., Lib. rv. c. i. — Pelayo, Heterodoxos Espafioles, I. 546-7. —
Mariana, Lib. xxi. c. 18. — Rodrigo, Inquisicion, II. 11-12. — Paramo, p. 131.
t Wadding, ann. 1383, No. 2. — Gobelins Persons Cosinodrom. Mt. v. c. 84
(Meibom. Rer. German. I. 317).
GENTILE OF SPOLETO. 171
of Siena had his thoughts accidentally directed to heaven. His
career strikingly resembles that of Peter Waldo, save that the
Church, grown wiser, utilized his zeal instead of antagonizing him.
The Order of Jesuats which he founded was approved by Urban Y.
in 1367. It was an order of lay brethren under the Augustinian
Rule, vowed to poverty and devoted to the care of the sick, not
unlike that of the Cellites or Alexians of the Rhinelands.*
It was inevitable that there should be dissatisfaction among
the more ascetic Franciscans, and that the more zealous of these
should seek some remedy short of heresy. In 1350 Gentile of
Spoleto obtained from Clement YI. authorization for some houses
of stricter observance. Immediately the experience of Angelo
and Liberato was repeated. The wrath of the Conventuals was
excited. The innovators were accused of adopting the short and
narrow gowns which had been the distinguishing mark of the
dreaded Olivists. In the General Chapter of 1353, the General
Farignano was urged to exterminate them by the measures which
had proved so effective in Languedoc. To this he did not assent,
but he set spies to work to obtain evidence against them, and soon
was able to accuse them of receiving Fraticelli. They admitted
the fact, but argued that this had been in the hope of converting
the heretics, and when they proved obstinate they had been ex-
pelled— but they had not been reported to the Inquisition as duty
required. Armed with this, Farignano represented to Innocent YI.
the grave dangers of the innovation, and obtained a revocation of
the papal authorization. The brethren were dispersed, Gentile
and two companions were thrown into prison at Orvieto ; his co-
adjutor, Fra Marti no, a most exemplary man, who shone in mira-
cles after death, died the next year, and the rest were reduced to
obedience. After prolonged captivity Gentile was released, and
died in 1362, wTorn out with fruitless labors to restore the disci-
pline of the Order.f
More fortunate was his disciple, Paoluccio da Trinci, of Foligno,
a simple and unlearned friar, who had obtained from his kinsman,
* Baluz. et Mansi IV. 566 sqq. In 1606 Paul V. allowed the Jesuats to take
orders.
f Wadding, ann. 1350, No. 15 ; ann. 1354, No. 1, 2; ann. 1362, No. 4.— Chron.
Glassberger ann. 1352, 1354, 1355.
172 THE FRATICELLI.
Ugolino, Lord of Foligno, a dungeon in which to gratify his thirst
for asceticism. Though he had permission for this from his su-
periors, he suffered much from the hostility of the laxer brethren,
but his austerities gained him great popular reverence and many
disciples. In 136S the General Farignano chanced to attend a pro-
vincial chapter at Foligno, and was persuaded to ask of Ugolino
a spot called Brulliano, in the mountains between Foligno and
Camerino, as a hermitage for Paoluccio and his followers. After
his request was granted he dreaded a schism in the Order and
wished to recall it, but Ugolino held him to his purpose. The
place was wild, rocky, marshy, unwholesome, infested with ser-
pents, and almost uninhabited. Thither Paoluccio led his brethren,
and they were forced to adopt the sabots or wooden shoes, which
became the distinguishing foot-gear of their Order. Their repu-
tation spread apace ; converts flocked to them ; their buildings
required enlargement ; associate houses were founded in many
places, and thus arose the Observantines, or Franciscans of strict
observance — an event in the history of the Church only second in
importance to the original foundation of the Mendicant Orders.*
"When Paoluccio died, in 1390, he was already reckoned as a
provincial within the Order. After an interval he was succeeded
by his coadjutor, Giovanni Stronconi. In 1405 began the marvel-
lous career of St. Bernardino of Siena, who counts as the formal
founder of the Observantines. They had merely been called the
Brethren of the Hermitages until the Council of Constance estab-
lished them as an organization virtually independent of the Con-
ventuals, when they took the name by which they have since been
known. Everywhere their institution spread. Xew houses arose,
or those of the Conventuals were reformed and given over to
them. Thus in 1426 they were introduced into the province of
Strassburg through the intervention of Matilda of Savoy, wife of
the Palsgrave Louis the Bearded. Familiar in her youth with
their virtues, she took occasion at Heidelberg to point out to her
husband the Franciscans in their convent garden below them,
amusing themselves with military exercises. It resulted in the
reform of all the houses in his dominions and the introduction of
the Observantine discipline, not without serious trouble. In 1453
* Wadding, ann. 1368, No. 10-13.
RISE OF THE OBSERVANTINES. 173
Nicholas of Cusa, as legate, forced all the houses in the diocese of
Bamberg to adopt the Observantine discipline, under threat of
forfeiting their privileges. In 1431 the holy house on Mt. Al-
verno, the Franciscan Mecca, was made over to them, and in 1434
the guardianship of the Holy Places in Jerusalem. In 1460 we
hear of their penetrating to distant Ireland. It is not to be sup-
posed that the Conventuals submitted quietly to the encroach-
ments and triumphs of the hated ascetics whom for a century and
a half they had successfully baffled and persecuted. Quarrels,
sharper and bitterer even than those with the Dominicans, were
of constant occurrence, and were beyond the power of the popes
to allay. A promising effort at reunion attempted by Capistrano
in 1430, under the auspices of Martin V., was defeated by the in-
curable laxity of the Conventuals, and there was nothing left for
both sides but to continue the war. In 1435 the strife rose to
such a pitch in France that Charles YIL was obliged to appeal
to the Council of Basle, which responded with a decree in favor
of the Observantines. The struggle was hopeless. The corrup-
tion of the Conventuals was so universally recognized that even
Pius II. does not hesitate to say that, though they generally excel
as theologians, virtue is the last thing about which most of them
concern themselves. In contrast with this the holiness of the new
organization won for it the veneration of the people, while the un-
flagging zeal with which it served the Holy See secured for it the
favor of the popes precisely as the Mendicant Orders had done in
the thirteenth century. At first merely a branch of the Francis-
cans, then placed under a virtually independent vicar-general, at
length Leo X., after vainly striving to heal the differences, gave
the Observantines a general minister and reduced the Conventuals
to a subordinate position under a general master.*
* Wadding, ann. 1375, No. 44; aim. 1390, No. 1-10; ami. 1403, No. 1 ; ann.
1405, No. 3 ; ann. 1415, No. 6-7; ann. 1431, No. 8; ann. 1434, No. 7; ann. 1435,
No. 12-13; ann. 1453, No. 18-26; ann. 1454, No. 22-3 ; ann. 1455, No. 43-7 ; ann.
1456, No. 129; ann. 1498, No. 7-8 ; ann. 1499, No. 18-20. — Chron. Glassberger
ann. 1426, 1430, 1501, 1517.— Theiner Monument. Hibern. et Scotor. No. 801, p.
425, No. 844, p. 460. — ^En. Sylvii Opp. inedd. (Atti della Accadeinia dei Lincei.
1883, p. 546). — Chron. Anon. (Analecta Franciscana I. 291-2).
The bitterness of the strife between the two branches of the Order is illus-
trated by the fact that the Franciscan Church of Palma, in Majorca, when struck
17-1 THE FRATICELLI.
A religious revival such as this brought into service a class of
men who were worthy representatives of the Peter Martyrs and
Guillem Arnauds of the early Inquisition. Under their ruthless
energy the Fraticelli were doomed to extinction. The troubles
of the Great Schism had allowed the heretics to flourish almost
unnoticed and unmolested, but after the Church had healed its
dissensions at Constance and had entered upon a new and vigor-
ous life, it set to work in earnest to eradicate them. Hardly had
Martin Y. returned to Italy from Constance when he issued from
Mantua, November 14, 1418, a bull in which he deplores the in-
crease of the abominable sect in many parts, and especially in the
Roman province. Fortified with the protection of the temporal
lords, they abuse and threaten the bishops and inquisitors who at-
tempt to repress them. The bishops and inquisitors are there-
fore instructed to proceed against them vigorously, without re-
gard to limits of jurisdiction, and to prosecute their protectors,
even if the latter are of episcopal or regal dignity, which suffi-
ciently indicates that the Fraticelli had found favor with those of
highest rank in both Church and State. This accomplished little,
for in a subsequent bull of 1421 Martin alludes to the continued
increase of the heresy, and tries the expedient of appointing the
by lightning and partially ruined in 1480, remained on this account unrepaired
for nearly a hundred years, until the Observantines got the better of their rivals
and obtained possession of it. — Dameto, Pro y Bover, Hist, de Mallorca, II. 1064-5
(Palma, 1841). It is related that when Sixtus IV., who had been a Conventual,
proposed in 1477 to subject the Observantines to their rivals, the blessed Gia-
como della Marca threatened him with an evil death, and he desisted. — (Chron.
Glassberger ann. 1477).
The exceeding laxity prevailing among the Conventuals is indicated by let-
ters granted in 1421 by the Franciscan general, Antonius dc Perreto, to Friar
Liebhardt Forschammer, permitting him to deposit with a faithful friend all
alms given to him, and to expend them on his own wants or for the benefit of
the Order, at his discretion ; he was also required to confess only four times a
year. — (Chron. Glassberger ann. 1416). The General Chapter held at Forli in
1421 was obliged to prohibit the brethren from trading and lending money on
usury, under pain of imprisonment and confiscation. — (lb. ann. 1421). From the
Chapter of Ueberlingen, held in 1426. we learn that there was a custom by which,
for a sum of money paid down, Franciscan convents would enter into obligations
to pay definite stipends to individual friars. — (lb. ann. 1426). In fact, the efforts
of reform at this period, stimulated by the rivalry of the Observantines, reveal
how utterly oblivious the Order had become of all the prescriptions of the Rule.
FAILURE OF INQUISITION. 175
Cardinals of Albano and Porto as special commissioners for its
suppression. The cardinals proved as inefficient as their prede-
cessors. In 1423 the General Council of Siena was greatly scan-
dalized at finding that at Peniscola there was a heretic pope with
his college of cardinals, apparently flourishing without an attempt
at concealment, and the Gallican nation made several ineffectual
efforts to induce the council to take active measures against the
secular authorities under whose favor these scandals were allowed
to exist. How utterly the machinery of persecution had broken
down is illustrated by the case of three Fraticelli who had at this
period been detected in Florence — Bartolommeo di Matteo, Gio-
vanni di Marino of Lucca, and Bartolommeo di Pietro of Pisa.
Evidently distrusting the Florentine Inquisition, which was Fran-
ciscan, Martin V. specially intrusted the matter to his legates then
presiding over the Council of Siena. On the sudden dissolution
of the council the legates returned to Eome, except the Dominican
General, Leonardo of Florence, who went to Florence. To him,
therefore, Martin wrote, April 24, 1424, empowering him to ter-
minate the case himself, and expressly forbidding the Inquisitor
of Florence from taking any part in it. In September of the
same year Martin instructed Piero, Abbot of Kosacio, his rector of
the Mark of Ancona, to extirpate the Fraticelli existing there, and
the difficulty of the undertaking was recognized in the unwonted
clemency which authorized Piero to reconcile even those who had
been guilty of repeated relapses.*
Some new motive force was evidently required. There were
laws in abundance for the extermination of heresy, and an elabo-
rate organization for their enforcement, but a paralysis seemed to
have fallen upon it, and all the efforts of the Holy See to make it
do its duty was in vain. The problem was solved when, in 1426,
Martin boldly overslaughed the Inquisition and appointed two
Gbservantines as inquisitors, without limitation of districts and
with power to appoint deputies, thus rendering them supreme over
the whole of Italy. These were the men whom we have so often
met before where heresy was to be combated — San Giovanni cla
* Raynald. ann. 1418, No. 11 ; ami. 1421, No. 4 ; ann. 1424, No. 7.— Jo. de Ra-
gusio de Init. Basil. Concil. (Mon. Cone. Gen. Stec. XV. T. I. pp. 30-1, 40, 55).—
Ripoll II. 645.
176 THE FRATICELLI.
Capistrano, and the blessed Giacomo da Monteprandone, gener-
ally known as della Marca — both full of zeal and energy, who richly
earned their respective canonization and beatification by lifelong
devotion and by services which can scarce be overestimated. It
is true that Giacomo was commissioned only as a missionary, to
preach to the heretics and reconcile them, but the difference was
practically undiscoverable, and when, a quarter of a century later,
he fondly looked back over the exploits of his youth, he related
with pride how the heretics fled from before his face, abandoned
their strongholds, and left their flocks to his mercy. Their head-
quarters seem to have been in the Mark of Ancona, and chiefly
in the dioceses of Fabriano and Jesi. There the new inquisitors
boldly attacked them. There was no resistance. Such of the
teachers as could do so sought safety in flight, and the fate of the
rest may be guessed from the instructions of Martin in 1128 to
Astorgio, Bishop of Ancona, his lieutenant in the Mark, with re-
spect to the village of Magnalata. As it hacl been a receptacle of
heretics, it is to be levelled with the earth, never to be rebuilt.
Stubborn heretics are to be dealt with according to the law — that
is, of course, to be burned, as Giacomo della Marca tells us was the
case with many of them. Those who repent may be reconciled,
but their leaders are to be imprisoned for life, and are to be tort-
ured, if necessary, to force them to reveal the names of their fel-
lows elsewhere. The simple folk who have been misled are to be
scattered around in the vicinage where they can cultivate their
lands, and are to be recompensed by dividing among them the
property confiscated from the rest. The children of heretic parents
are to be taken away and sent to a distance, where they can be
brought up in the faith. Heretic books are to be diligently
searched for throughout the province ; and all magistrates and
communities are to be warned that any favor or protection shown
to heretics will be visited with forfeiture of municipal rights."
Such measures ought to have been effective, as well as the de-
vice of Capistrano, who, after driving the Fraticelli out of Massacio
and Palestrina, founded Observantine houses there to serve as
citadels of the faith, but the heretics were stubborn and enduring.
* Wadding, ann. 1426, No. 1-4. — Raynald. arm. 1428, No. 7.— Jac. tie Marchia
Dial. (Baluz. et Mansi II. 597, 609).
CAPISTRANO AND DELLA MARCA. 177
"When Eugenius IV. succeeded to the papacy he renewed Capis-
trano's commission in 1432 as a general inquisitor against the
Fraticelli. We have no details of his activity during this period,
but he was doubtless busily employed, though he was deprived of
the assistance of Giacomo, who until 1440 was, as we have seen, at
work among the Cathari of Bosnia and the Hussites of Hungary.
The Fraticelli of Ancona were still troublesome, for, on his return
from Asia in 1441, Giacomo was sent thither as special inquis-
itor for their suppression. When, in 1447, Nicholas V. ascended
the papal throne, he made haste to renew Capistrano's commis-
sion, and in 1449 a combined attack was made on the heretics of
the Mark, possibly stimulated by the capture, in his own court, of
a bishop of the Fraticelli named Matteo, disguised in a Franciscan
habit. Nicholas himself went to Fabriano, while Capistrano and
Giacomo scoured the country. Magnalata had been rebuilt in
spite of the prohibition, and it, with Migliorotta, Poggio, and
Merulo, was brought back to the faith, by what means we can
well guess. Giacomo boasts that the heretics gave five hundred
ducats to a bravo to slay Capistrano, and on one occasion two hun-
dred and on another one hundred and fifty to procure his own
death, but the assassins in each case were touched with compunc-
tion and came in and made confession — doubtless a profitable
revelation for sharpers to make, for no one acquainted with Italian
society at that period can imagine that such sums would not have
effected their object. The inquisitors, however, were specially
protected by Heaven. Capistrano's legend relates that on one
occasion the heretics waited for him in ambush. His companions
passed in safety, and when he followed alone, absorbed in medita-
tion and prayer, a sudden whirlwind, with torrents of rain, kept
his assailants in their lair, and he escaped. Giacomo was similarly
divinely guarded. At Matelica a heretic concealed himself in a
chapel of the Virgin to assail the inquisitor as he passed, but the
Virgin appeared to him with threats so terrible that he fell to the
ground and lay there till the neighbors carried him to a hospital,
and it was three months before he was able to seek Giacomo at
Fermo and abjure.*
* Wadding, ann. 1426, No. 15-16 ; Regest. Mart. V. No. 162 ; ann. 1432, No.
8-9; ann. 1441, No. 37-8; ann. 1447, No. 10; ann. 1456, No. 108; ann. 1470,
' III.— 12
178 THE FRATICELLI.
The unlucky captives were brought before Nicholas at Fabri-
ano and burned. Giacomo tells us that the stench lasted for three
days and extended as far as the convent in which he was staying.
He exerted himself to save the souls of those whose bodies were
forfeit by reason of relapse, and succeeded in all cases but one.
This hardened heretic was the treasurer of the sect, named Chiuso.
He refused to recant, and would not call upon God or the Virgin
or the saints for aid, but simply said " Fire will not burn me."
His endurance was tested to the utmost. For three days he was
burned piecemeal at intervals, but his resolution never gave way,
and at last he expired impenitent, in spite of the kindly efforts to
torture him to heaven.*
After this Ave hear little of the Fraticelli, although the sect
still continued to exist for a while in secret. In 1467 Paul II. con-
verted a number of them who were brought from Poli to Rome.
Eight men and six women, with paper mitres on their heads, were
exposed to the jeers of the populace on a high scaffold at the Ara-
cceli, while the papal vicar and five bishops preached for their
conversion. Their penance consisted in imprisonment in the Cam-
pidoglio, and in wearing a long robe bearing a white cross on
breast and back. It was probably on this occasion that Rodrigo
Sanchez, a favorite of Paul's, and subsequently Bishop of Palencia,
wrote a treatise on the poverty of Christ, in which he proved that
ecclesiastics led apostolic lives in the midst of their possessions.
In 1471 Fra Tommaso di Scarlino was sent to Piombino and the
maritime parts of Tuscany to drive out some Fraticelli who had
been discovered there. This is the last allusion to them that I have
met with, and thereafter they may be considered as virtually ex-
tinct. That they soon passed completely out of notice may be
inferred from the fact that in 1487, when the Spanish Inquisition
persecuted some Observantines, Innocent VIII. issued a general
order that any Franciscans imprisoned by Dominican inquisitors
should be handed over for trial to their own superiors, and that no
such prosecutions should be thereafter undertaken.f
No. 24-5. — Raynald. ann. 1432, No. 24. — Jac. de Marchia Dial. (Baluz. et Mansi
II. 610).
* Jac. de Marchia 1. c.
t Steph. Infessurae Diar. Urb. Rom. ann. 1467 (Eccard. Corp. Hist. II. 1803).—
REPLACED BY OBSER V ANTINES. 179
The Observantine movement may be credited with the destruc-
tion of the Fraticelli, not so much by furnishing the men and the
zeal required for their violent suppression as by supplying an or-
ganization in which ascetic longings could be safely gratified, and
by attracting to themselves the popular veneration which had so
long served as a safeguard to the heretics. When we read of
Capistrano's reputation among his countrymen — how in Yicenza,
in 1451, the authorities had to shut the city gates to keep out the
influx of surging crowds, and when he walked the streets he had
to be accompanied by a guard of Frati to keep off the people seek-
ing to touch him with sticks or to secure a fragment of his gar-
ment as a relic ; how in Florence, in 1456, an armed guard was
requisite to prevent his suffocation — we can realize the tremendous
influence exercised by him and his fellows in diverting the current
of public opinion to the Church which they represented. Like the
Mendicants of the thirteenth century, they restored to it much of
the reverence which it had forfeited, in spite of the relaxation and
self-indulgence to which, if Poggio is to be believed, many of them
speedily degenerated.*
'Not less effective was the refuge which the Observantines af-
forded to those whose morbid tendencies led them to seek super-
human austerity. The Church having at last recognized the ne-
cessity of furnishing an outlet for these tendencies, as the old
Fraticelli died or were burned there were none to take their place,
and the sect disappears from view without leaving a trace behind
it. Ascetic zeal must indeed have been intense when it could not
be satiated by such a life as that of Lorenzo da Fermo, who died
in 1481 at the age of one hundred and ten, after passing ninety
years with the Observantines. For forty of these years he lived
on Mont Alverno, wearing neither cowl nor sandals — bareheaded
and barefooted in the severest weather, and with the thinnest gar-
ments. If there were natures which craved more than this, the
Church had learned either to utilize or to control them. Thus was
organized the Order of the Strict Observance, better known as the
Platinse Vit. Pauli II. (Ed. 1574, p. 308).— Rod. Santii Hist. Hispan. P. in. c. 40
(R. Beli Rer. Hisp. Scriptt. I. 433).— Wadding, aim. 1371, No. 14.^-Ripoll IV. 22.
* Barbarano de' Mironi, Hist, di Vicenza, II. 164-5.— Poggii Bracciol. Dial,
contra Hypocrisim.
180 THE FRATICELLI.
Recollects. The Conde de Sotomayor, of the noblest blood of
Spain, had entered the Franciscan Order, and, becoming dissatisfied
with its laxity, obtained from Innocent VIII., in 1487, authority
to found a reformed branch, which he established in the wilds of
the Sierra Morena. In spite of the angry opposition of both Con-
ventuals and Observantines, it proved successful and spread per-
manently through France and Italy. An irregular and unfortu-
nate effort in the same direction was made not long after by
Matteo da Tivoli, a Franciscan whose thirst for supreme asceticism
had led him to adopt the life of a hermit, with about eighty fol-
lowers, in the Roman province. They threw off all obedience to
the Order, under the influence of Satan, who appeared to Matteo
in the guise of Christ. He was seized and imprisoned, and com-
menced to doubt the reality of his mission, when another vision
confirmed him. He succeeded in escaping with a comrade, and
lived in caves among the mountains with numerous disciples,
illuminated by God and gifted with miraculous power. He organ-
ized his followers into an independent Order, with general, provin-
cials, and guardians, but the Church succeeded in breaking it up
in 1495, Matteo finally returning to the Conventuals, while most
of his disciples entered the Observantines. -
In reviewing this history of the morbid aberrations of lofty
impulses, it is impossible not to recognize how much the Church
lost in vitality, and how much causeless suffering was inflicted by
the theological arrogance and obstinate perversity of John XXII.
With tact and discretion the zeal of the Fraticelli could have been
utilized, as was subsequently that of the Observantines. The
ceaseless quarrels of the Conventuals with the latter explain the
persecutions endured by the Spirituals and the Fraticelli. Paoluc-
cio was fortunate in finding men high in station who were wise
enough to protect his infant organization until it had demonstrated
its usefulness and was able to defend itself, but there never was
a time, even when it was the most useful weapon in the hands of
the Holy See, when the Conventuals would not, had they been
able, have treated it as inhumanly as they had treated the follow-
ers of Angelo and Olivi and Michele da Cesena.
* Wadding, ann. 1481, No. 9 ; ami. 1487, No. 3-5 ; aim. 1495, No. 12.— Addis
and Arnold's Catholic Dictionary, s. v. Recollects.
CHAPTER IY.
POLITICAL HERESY UTILIZED BY THE CHURCH.
The identification of the cause of the Church with that of
God was no new thing. Long before the formulation of laws
against heresy and the organization of the Inquisition for its sup-
pression, the advantage had been recognized of denouncing as her-
etics all who refused obedience to the demands of prelate and pope.
In the quarrel between the empire and papacy over the question
of the investitures, the Council of Lateran, in 1102, required all
the bishops in attendance to subscribe a declaration anathematizing
the new heresy of disregarding the papal anathema, and though
the Church as yet was by no means determined on the death-pen-
alty for ordinary heresy, it had no hesitation as to the punishment
due to the imperialists who maintained the traditional rights of
the empire against its new pretensions. In that same year the
monk Sigebert, who was by no means a follower of the antipope
Alberto, was scandalized at the savage cruelty of Paschal II. in
exhorting his adherents to the slaughter of all the subjects of
Henry IY. Robert the Hierosolymitan of Flanders, on his re-
turn from the first crusade, had taken up arms against Henry IY.
and had signalized his devotion by depopulating the Cambresis,
whereupon Paschal wrote to him with enthusiastic praises of this
good work, urging him to continue it as quite as pious as his labors
to recover the Holy Sepulchre, and promising remission of sins to
him and to all his ruthless soldiery. Paschal himself became a
heretic when, in 1111, yielding to the violence of Henry Y., he con-
ceded the imperial right of investiture of bishops and abbots, al-
though when Bruno, Bishop of Segni and Abbot of Monte Casino,
boldly proved his heresy to his face, he deprived the audacious
reasoner of the abbacy and sent him back to his see. In his set-
tlement with Henry, he had broken a consecrated host, each tak-
182 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE CHURCH.
ing half, and had solemnly said, " Even as this body of Christ is
divided, so let him be divided from the kingdom of Christ who
shall attempt to violate our compact ;" but the stigma of heresy
was unendurable, and in 1112 he presided over the Council of
Lateran, which pronounced void his oath and his bulls. AVhen
Henry complained that he had violated his oath, he coolly replied
that he had promised not to excommunicate Henry, but not that
he should not be excommunicated by others. If Paschal was not
forced literally to abjure his heresy he did so constructively, and
the principle was established that even a pope could not abandon
a claim of which the denial had been pronounced heretical. When,
not long afterwards, the German prelates were required at their
consecration to abjure ail heresy, and especially the Henrician, the
allusion was not to the errors of Henry of Lausanne, but to those
of the emperor who had sought to limit the encroachments of the
Holy See on the temporal power.*
As heresy, rightly so called, waxed and grew more and more
threatening, and the struggle for its suppression increased in bit-
terness and took an organized shape under a formidable body of
legislation, and as the application of the theory of indulgences gave
to the Church an armed militia ready for mobilization without
cost whenever it chose to proclaim danger to the faith, the tempta-
tion to invoke the fanaticism of Christendom for the defence or
extension of its temporal interests inevitably increased in strength.
In so far as such a resort can be justified, the Albigensian cru-
sades were justified by a real antagonism of faith which fore-
boded a division of Christianity, and their success irresistibly led
to the application of the same means to cases in which there was
not the semblance of a similar excuse. Of these one of the earli-
est, as well as one of the most typical, was that of the Stedingers.
The Stedingers were a mixed race who had colonized on the
lower Weser the lands which their industry won from the over-
flow of river and sea, their territory extending southward to the
neighborhood of Bremen. A rough and semi-barbarous folk, no
doubt — hardy herdsmen and fishermen, with perhaps an occasional
* Concil. Later.m ann. 1102 (Harduin. VI. n. 1861-2).— Epist, Sigebert. (Mart.
Ampl. Coll. I. 587-94).— -Chron. Cassinens. iv. 42, 44. (Cf. Martene Ampl. Coll. I.
627.)— Hartzheim III. 258-65.— Martene Ampl. Coll. I. 659.
THE STEDINGERS. 183
tendency to piracy in the ages which celebrated the exploits of
the Vikings of Jomsburg. They were freemen under the spiritual
care of the Archbishops of Bremen, who in return enjoyed their
tithes. This tithe question had been immemorially a troublesome
one, ever since a tincture of Christianity had overspread those re-
gions. In the eleventh century Adam of Bremen tells us that
throughout the archiepiscopate the bishops sold their benedictions
and the people were not only abandoned to lust and gluttony, but
refused to pay their tithes. The Stedingers were governed by
judges of their own choice, administering their own laws, until,
about 1187, trouble arose from the attempts of the Counts of Old-
enburg to extend their authority over the redeemed marshes and
islands, by building a castle or two which should keep the popula-
tion in check. There were few churches, and, as the parishes were
large, the matrons were accustomed to carry their daughters to
mass in wagons. The garrisons were in the habit of sallying
forth and seizing these women to solace their solitude, till the peo-
ple arose, captured the castles, slew the garrisons, and dug a ditch
across a neck of their territory, leaving only one gate for entrance.
John Count of Oldenburg recovered his castles, but after his death
the Stedingers reasserted their independence. Among their rights
they included the non-payment of tithes, and they treated with
contumely the priests sent to compel their obedience. They
strengthened their defences, and their freedom from feudal and
ecclesiastical tyranny attracted to them refugees from all the
neighboring lands. Hartwig, Archbishop of Bremen, when on his
way to the Holy Land in 1197, is said to have asked Celestin III.
to preach a crusade against them as heretics, but this is evidently
an error, for the Albigensian wars had not as yet suggested the
employment of such methods. Matters became more embroiled
when some monks who ventured to inculcate upon the peasants
the duty of tithe-paying were martyred. Still worse was it when
a priest, irritated at the smallness of an oblation offered at Easter
by a woman of condition, in derision slipped into her mouth the
coin in place of the Eucharist. Unable to swallow it, and fearing
to commit sacrilege, the woman kept it in her mouth till her re-
turn home, when she ejected it in some clean linen and discovered
the trick. Enraged at this insult her husband slew the priest, and
thus increased the general ferment. After his return Hartwig en-
1S4 POLITICAL HERESY. — THE CHURCH.
deavored, in 1207, to reduce the recalcitrant population, but with-
out success, except to get some money. *
Yet the Stedingers were welcomed as fullv orthodox when
their aid was wanted in the struggle which raged from 1208 till
1217, between the rival archbishops of Bremen, first between
Waldemar and Burchard, and then between TYaldemar and Ger-
hardt. Banged at first on the side of 'Waldemar, after the triumph
of Frederic II. over Otho their defection to Gerhardt was decisive,
and in 1217 the latter obtained his archiepiscopal seat, where he
held his allies in high favor until his death in 1219. He was suc-
ceeded by Gerhardt II., of the House of Lippe, a warlike prelate
who endeavored to overthrow the liberties of Bremen itself, and
to levy tolls on all the commerce of the Weser. The Stedinger
tithes were not likely to escape his attention. Other distractions,
including a war with the King of Denmark and strife with the
recalcitrant citizens of Bremen, prevented any immediate effort to
subjugate the Stedingers, but at length his hands were free. His
brother, Hermann Count of Lippe, came to his assistance with
other nobles, for the independence of the Weser peasant-folk was
of evil import to the neighboring feudal lords. To take advantage
of the ice in those watery regions the expedition set forth in De-
cember, 1229, under the leadership of the count and the archbishop.
The Stedingers resisted valiantly. On Christmas Day a battle was
fought in which Count Hermann was slain and the crusaders put
to flight. To celebrate the triumph the victors in derision ap-
pointed mock officials, styling one emperor, another pope, and
others archbishops and bishops, and these issued letters under these
titles — a sorry jest, which when duly magnified represented them
as rebels against all temporal and spiritual authority. +
* Schumacher, Die Stedinger, Bremen, 1865, pp. 26-8. — Adam. Bremens. Gest.
Pontif. Hammaburg. c. 203. — Chron. Erfordiens. ami. 1230 (Schannat Vindem.
Litt. I. 93).— Chron. Rastedens. (Meibom. Rer. Germ. II. 101).— Albert. Stadens.
Chron. ann. 1207 (Schilt S. R. Germ. I. 299).— Joan. Otton. Cat. Archiepp. Bremens.
ann. 1207 (Menken. S. R. Germ. II. 791).
f Albert. Stadens. Chron. ann. 1208-17, 1230.— Joan. Otton. Cat. Archiepp.
Bremens. ann. 1211-20. — Anon. Saxon. Hist. Impp. ann. 1229 (Menken. III.
125).— Chron. Rastedens. (Meibom. II. 101).
There is considerable confusion among the authorities with regard to these
events. I have followed the careful investigations of Schumacher, op. cit. pp.
219-23.
THE STEDINGERS. Ig5
It was evident that some more potent means must be found to
overcome the indomitable peasantry, and the device adopted was
suggested by the success, in 1230, of the crusade preached by Wil-
brand, Bishop of Utrecht, against the free Frisians in revenge for
their slaying his predecessor Otho, a brother of Archbishop Ger-
hardt, and imprisoning his other brother, Dietrich, Provost of
Deventer, after their victory of Coevorden. It was scarce pos-
sible not to follow this example. At a synod held in Bremen in
1230, the Stedingers were put to the ban as the vilest of heretics,
who treated the Eucharist with contempt too horrible for descrip-
tion, who sought responses from wise-women, made waxen images,
and wrought many other works of darkness.*
Doubtless there were remnants of pagan superstition in Steding,
such as we shall hereafter see existing throughout many parts of
Christendom, which served as. a foundation for these accusations,
but that in fact there were no religious principles involved, and
that the questions at issue were purely political, is indicated by the
praise which Frederic II., in an epistle dated June 14, 1230, bestows
on the Stedingers for the aid which they had rendered to a house
of the Teutonic Knights, and his exhortation that they should con-
tinue to protect it. We learn, moreover, that everywhere the peas-
antry openly favored them and joined them when opportunity per-
mitted. It was simply an episode in the extension of feudalism and
sacerdotalism. The scattered remains of the old Teutonic tribal in-
dependence were to be crushed, and the combined powers of Church
and State were summoned to the task. How readily such accusa-
tions could be imposed on the credulity of the people we have seen
from the operations of Conrad of Marburg, and the stories to which
he gave currency of far-pervading secret rites of demon-worship.
Yet the preliminaries of a crusade consumed time, and during 1231
and 1232 Archbishop Gerhardt had all he could do to withstand
the assaults of the victorious peasants, who twice captured and de-
stroyed the castle of Schlatter, which he had rebuilt to protect his
territories from their incursions ; he sought support in Rome, and in
October, 1232, after ordering an investigation of the heresy by the
Bishops of Lubeck, Ratzeburg, and Minden, Gregory IX. came to
* Emonis Chron. ann. 1227, 1230 (Matthaei Analecta III. 128, 132).— Schu-
macher, p. 81.
186 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE CHURCH.
his aid with bulls addressed to the Bishops of Minden, Lubeck, and
Yerden, ordering them to preach the cross against the rebels. In
these there is nothing said about tithes, but the Stedingers are de-
scribed as heretics of the worst description, who deny God, wor-
ship demons, consult seeresses, abuse the sacrament, make wax
figurines to destroy their enemies, and commit the foulest excesses
on the clergy, sometimes nailing priests to the wall with arms and
legs spread out, in derision of the Crucified. Gregory's long pon-
tificate was devoted to two paramount objects — the destruction of
Frederic II. and the suppression of heresy. The very name of
heretic seemed to awake in him a wrath which deprived him of all
reasoning powers, and he threw himself into the contest with the
unhappy peasants of the Weser marshes as unreservedly as he did
into that which Conrad of Marburg was contemporaneously wag-
ing with the powers of darkness in the Rhinelands. In January,
1233, he wrote to the Bishops of Paderborn, Hildesheim, Yerden,
Miinster, and Osnabriick, ordering them to assist their brethren of
Ratzeburg, Minden, and Lubeck, whom he had commissioned to
preach a crusade, with full pardons, against the heretics called
Stedingers, who were destroying the faithful people of those re-
gions. An army had meanwhile been collected which accom-
plished nothing during the winter against the steadfast resolution
of the peasants, and dispersed on the expiration of its short term
of service. In a papal epistle of June 17, 1233, to the Bishops of
Minden, Lubeck, and Ratzeburg, this lack of success is represented
as resulting from a mistaken belief on the part of the crusaders
that they were not getting the same indulgences as those granted
for the Holy Land, leading them to withdraw after gaining decisive
advantages. The bishops are therefore ordered to preach a new
crusade in which there shall be no error as to the pardons to be
earned, unless meanwhile the Stedingers shall submit to the arch-
bishop and abandon their heresies. Already, however, another
band of crusaders had been organized, which, towards the end of
June, 1233, penetrated eastern Steding, on the right bank of the
Weser. This district had hitherto kept aloof from the strife, and
was defenceless. The crusaders devastated the land with fire and
sword, slaying without distinction of age or sex, and manifesting
their religious zeal by burning all the men who were captured.
The crusade came to an inglorious end, however ; for, encouraged
THE STEDINGERS. 1ST
by its easy success, Count Burchard of Oldenburg, its leader, was
emboldened to attack the fortified lands on the west bank, when he
and some two hundred crusaders were slain and the rest were
glad to escape with their lives.*
Matters were evidently growing serious. The success of the
Stedingers in battling for the maintenance of their independence
was awakening an uneasy feeling among the populations, and the
feudal nobles were no less interested than the prelates in sub-
duing what might prove to be the nucleus of a dangerous and far-
reaching revolt. The third crusade was therefore preached with
additional energy over a wider circle than before, and prepara-
tions were made for an expedition in 1234 on a scale to crush all
resistance. Dominicans spread like a cloud over Holland, Flan-
ders, Brabant, Westphalia, and the Rhinelands, summoning the
faithful to defend religion. In Friesland they had little success,
for the population sympathized with their kindred and were
rather disposed to maltreat the preachers, but elsewhere their
labors were abundantly rewarded. Bulls of February 11 take un-
der papal protection the territories of Henry Baspe of Thuringia,
and Otho of Brunswick, who had assumed the cross — the latter,
however, only with a view to self-protection, for he was an enemy
of Archbishop Gerhardt. The heaviest contingent came from the
west, under Hendrik, Duke of Brabant, consisting, it is said, of
forty thousand men led by the preux chevalier, Florent, Count of
Holland, together with Thierry, Count of Cleves, Arnoul of Oude-
narde, Rasso of Gavres, Thierry of Dixmunde, Gilbert of Zotte-
ghem, and other nobles, eager to earn salvation and preserve their
feudal rights. Three hundred ships from Holland gave assurance
that the maritime part of the expedition should not be lacking.
Apparently warned by the disastrous outcome of his zeal in the
affair of Conrad of Marburg, Gregory at the last moment seems
to have felt some misgiving, and in March, 1234, sent to Bishop
Guglielmo, his legate in North Germany, orders to endeavor by
peaceful means to bring about the reconciliation of the peasants,
* Hist. Diplom. Frid. II. T. IV. p. 497.— Albert. Stadens. Chrou. aim. 1232,
1234.— Raynald. ann. 1232, No. 8.— Hartzheim III. 553.— Joan. Ottonis Cat. Ar-
chiepp. Bremens. ann. 1234. — Anon. Saxon. Hist. Imperator. ann. 1220. — Chron.
Cornel. Zantfliet ann. 1233.— Epistt. Select. Saecul. XIII. T. I. No. 539 (Pertz).
188 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE CHURCH.
but the effort came too late. In April the hosts were already as-
sembling, and the legate did, and probably could do, nothing to
avert the final blow. Overwhelming as was the force of the cru-
saders, the handful of peasants met it with their wonted resolu-
tion. At Altenesch, on May 27, they made their stand and re-
sisted with stubborn valor the onslaught of Hendrik of Brabant
and Florent of Holland ; but, in the vast disparity of numbers,
Thierry of Cleves was able to make a flank attack with fresh
troops which broke their ranks, when they were slaughtered un-
sparingly. Six thousand were left dead upon the field, besides
those drowned in the Weser in the vain attempt at flight, and we
are asked to believe that the divine favor was manifested in that
only seven of the crusaders perished. The land now lay defence-
less before the soldiers of the Lord, who improved their victory by
laying it waste with fire and sword, sparing neither age nor sex.
Six centuries later, on May 27, 1S34, a monument was solemnly
dedicated on the field of Altenesch to the heroes who fell in des-
perate defence of their land and liberty.*
Bald as was the pretence for this frightful tragedy, the Church
assumed all the responsibility and kept up the transparent fiction
to the last. When the slaughter and devastation were over, came
the solemn farce of reconciling the heretics. As the land had
been so long under their control, their dead were buried indistin-
guishable with the remains of the orthodox, so, November 28,
123-1, Gregory graciously announced that the necessity of exhu-
mation would be waived in view of the impossibility of separat-
ing the one from the other, but that all cemeteries must be conse-
crated anew to overcome the pollution of the heretic bodies within
them. Considerable time must have been consumed in the settle-
ment of all details, for it is not until August, 1236, that Gregory
writes to the archbishop that, as the Stedingers have abandoned
their rebellion and humbly supplicated for reconciliation, he is
# Emonis Chron. aim. 1234 (Matthsei Analccta III. 139 sqq.). — Potthast No.
9399, 9400. — Epistt. Select. Sa3cul. XIII. T. I. No. 572.— Meyeri Annal. Flandr.
Lib. Yin. ami. 1233. — Chron. Cornel. Zantfliet ann. 1234.— Schumacher, pp. 116-
17.— Chron. Erfordiens. ann. 1232.— Sachsische Weltchronik No. 376-8.— H.Wol-
teri Chron. Bremens. (Meibom. Rer. Germ. II. 58-9).— Chron. Rastedens. (lb. II.
101). — Joan Otton. Cat. Archiepp. Bremens. ann. 1234. — Albert. Stadens. ann.
1234. — Anon. Saxon. Hist. Imperator. aim. 1229.
CRUSADES FOR THE PAPACY. 189
authorized to reconcile them on receiving proper security that
they will be obedient for the future and make proper amends for
the past. In this closing act of the bloody drama it is noteworthy
that there is no allusion to any of the specific heresies which had
been alleged as a reason for the extermination of the heretics.
Perhaps the breaking of Conrad of Marburg's bubble had shown
the falsity of the charges, but whether this were so or not those
charges had been wTholly supererogatory except as a means of ex-
citing popular animosity. Disobedience to the Church was suffi-
cient ; resistance to its claims was heresy, punishable here and here-
after with all the penalties of the temporal and spiritual swords.*
It is not to be supposed that Gregory neglected to employ in
his owm interest the moral and material forces which he had thus
put at the disposal of Gerhardt of Bremen. When, in 1238, he
became involved in a quarrel with the Viterbians and their leader
Aldobrandini, he commuted the vow of the Podesta of Spoleto to
serve in Palestine into service against Yiterbo, and he freely of-
fered Holy Land indulgences to all who would enlist under his
banner. In 1241 he formally declared the cause of the Church to
be more important than that of Palestine, when, being in want of
funds to carry on his contest with Frederic II., he ordered that
crusaders be induced to commute their vowts for money, while still
receiving full indulgences, or else be persuaded to turn their arms
against Frederic in the crusade which he had caused to be preached
against him. Innocent IV. pursued the same policy when he had
set up a rival emperor in the person of William of Holland, and a
crusade was preached in 1248 for a special expedition to Aix-la-
Chapelle, of which the capture was necessary in order to his coro-
nation, and vows for Palestine were redeemed that the money
should be handed over to him. After Frederic's death his son
Conrad IV. was the object of similar measures, and all who bore
arms in his favor against William of Holland were the subject
of papal anathemas. To maintain the Italian interests of the
* Potthast No. 9777.— Hartzheim III. 554.
As the contemporary Abbot Emo of Wittewerum says, in describing the af-
fair— " principalior causa fuit inobedientia, quse scelere idololatriae non est infe-
rior" (Mattbaei Analect. III. 142).
190 POLITICAL HERESY. — THE CHURCH.
papacy, men slaughtered each other in holy wars all over Europe.
The disastrous expedition to Aragon which cost Philippe le Hardi
his life in 1281 was a crusade preached by order of Martin IY. to
aid Charles of Anjou, and to punish Pedro III. for his conquest of
Sicily after the Sicilian Vespers.*
With the systematization of the laws against heresy and the
organization of the Inquisition, proceedings of this nature assume
a more regular shape, especially in Italy. It was in their charac-
ter as Italian princes that the popes found the supreme utility of
the Holy Office. Frederic II. had been forced to pay for his coro-
nation not only by the edict of persecution, but by the confirma-
tion of the grant of the Countess Matilda. Papal ambition thus
stimulated aspired to the domination of the whole of Italy, and
for this the way seemed open with the death of Frederic in 1250,
followed by that of Conrad in 1254. When the hated Suabians
passed away, the unification of Italy under the triple crown seemed
at hand, and Innocent IY., before his death in December, 1254,
had the supreme satisfaction of lording it in Naples, the most
powerful pope that the Holy See had known. Yet the nobles and
cities were as unwilling to subject themselves to the Innocents
and Alexanders as to the Frederics, and the turbulent factions of
Guelf and Ghibelline maintained the civil strife in every corner
of central and upper Italy. To the papal policy it was an invalu-
able assistance to have the power of placing in every town of im-
portance an inquisitor whose devotion to Rome was unquestioned,
whose person was inviolable, and who was authorized to compel
the submissive assistance of the secular arm under terror of a
prosecution for heresy in the case of slack obedience. Such an
agent could cope with podesta and bishop, and even an unruly
populace rarely ventured a resort to temporary violence. The
statutes of the republics, as we have seen, were modified and
moulded to adapt them to the fullest development of the new
power, under the excuse of facilitating the extermination of her-
esy, and the Holy Office became the ultimate expression of the
serviceable devotion of the Mendicant Orders to the Holy See.
From this point of view we are able to appreciate the full signifi-
. * Epistt. Selectt. Saec. XIII. T. I. No. 720, 801.— Berger, Registres dTnnoceut
IV. No. 4181, 4265, 4269.— Ripoll I. 219, 225.— Vaissette, IV. 46.
UTILITY OF THE INQUISITION. 191
cance of the terrible bulls Ad extirpanda, described in a previous
chapter.
It was possibly with a view thus to utilize the force of both
Orders that the Inquisitions of northern and central Italy were
divided between them, and their respective provinces permanent-
ly assigned to each. Nor perhaps would we err in recognizing an
object in the assignment to the Dominicans, who were regarded
as sterner and more vigorous than their rivals, of the province of
Lombardy, which not only was the hot-bed of heresy, but which
retained some recollections of the ancient independence of the
Ambrosian Church, and was more susceptible to imperial influ-
ences from Germany.
With the development of the laws against heresy, and the or-
ganization of special tribunals for the application of those laws,
it was soon perceived that an accusation of heresy was a peculiar-
ly easy and efficient method of attacking a political enemy. No
charge was easier to bring, none so difficult to disprove — in fact,
from what we have seen of the procedure of the Inquisition, there
was none in which acquittal was so absolutely impossible where
the tribunal was desirous of condemnation. When employed po-
litically the accused had the naked alternative of submission or
of armed resistance. No crime, moreover, according to the ac-
cepted legal doctrines of the age, carried with it a penalty so se-
vere for a potentate who was above all other laws. Besides, the
procedure of the Inquisition required that when a suspected her-
etic was summoned to trial, his first step was humbly to swear
to stand to the mandates of the Church, and perform whatever
penance it should see fit to impose in case he failed to clear him-
self of the suspicion. Thus an immense advantage was gained
over a political enemy by merely citing him to appear, when he
was obliged either to submit himself in advance to any terms that
might be dictated to him, or, by refusing to appear, expose him-
self to condemnation for contumacy with its tremendous temporal
consequences.
It mattered little what were the grounds on which a charge
of heresy was based. In the intricate intrigues and factional strife
which seethed and boiled in every Italian city, there could be
no lack of excuse for setting the machinery of the Inquisition in
motion whenever there was an object to be attained. With the
192 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE CHURCH.
organization of the Hildebrandine theocracy the heretical charac-
ter of simple disobedience, which had been implied rather than
expressed, came to be distinctly formulated. Thomas Aquinas
did not shrink from proving that resistance to the authority of
the Roman Church was heretical. By embodying in the canon
law the bull Unam Sanctum the Church accepted the definition
of Boniface VIII. that whoever resists the power lodged by God
in the Church resists God, unless, like a Manichaean, he believes in
two principles, which shows him to be a heretic. If the supreme
spiritual power errs, it is to be judged of God alone ; there is no
earthly appeal. " We say, declare, define, and pronounce that it is
necessary to salvation that every human creature be subjected to
the Roman pontiff." Inquisitors, therefore, were fully justified in
laying it down as an accepted principle of law that disobedience
to any command of the Holy See was heresy ; so was any attempt
to deprive the Roman Church of any privilege which it saw fit
to claim. As a corollary to this was the declaration that inquisi-
tors had power to levy Avar against heretics and to give it the
character of a crusade by granting all the indulgences offered for
the succor of the Holy Land. Armed with such powers, it would
be difficult to exaggerate the importance of the Inquisition as a
political instrument.*
Incidental allusion has been made above to the application of
these methods in the cases of Ezzelin da Romano and Uberto Pal-
lavicino, and we have seen their efficacy even in the tumultuous
lawlessness of the period as one of the factors in the ruin of those
powerful chiefs. AVhen the crusade against Ezzelin was preached
in the north of Europe he was represented to the people simply
as a powerful heretic who was persecuting the faith. Even more
conspicuous was the application of this principle in the great
* Th. Aquinat. Sec. Sec. Q. 11, No. 2-3.— C. 1. Extrav. Commun. i. 8.— Zancbini
Tract, de Haeret. c. ii., xxxvii.
It was probably as a derivative from the sanctity of the power of the Holy
See that the Inquisition was given jurisdiction over the forgers and falsifiers
of papal bulls — gentry whose industry we have seen to be one of the inevi-
table consequences of the autocracy of Rome. Letters under which Fra Gri-
maldo da Prato. Inquisitor of Tuscany in 1297, was directed to act in certain
cases of the kind are printed by Arnati in the Archivio Storico Italiano, No. 38,
p.G.
PROCEEDINGS AGAINST MANFRED. 193
struggle on which all the rest depended, which in fact decided the
destiny of the whole peninsula. The destruction of Manfred was
an actual necessity to the success of the papal policy, and for
years the Church sought throughout Europe a champion who
could be allured by the promise of an earthly crown and assured
salvation. In 1255 Alexander IY. authorized his legate, Bustand,
Bishop of Bologna, to release Henry III. of England from his cru-
sader's vow if he would turn his arms against Manfred, and the
bribe of the Sicilian throne was offered to Henry's son, Edmund
of Lancaster. When Bustand preached the crusade against Man-
fred and offered the same indulgences as for the Holy Land the
ignorant islanders wondered greatly at learning that the same
pardons could be earned for shedding Christian blood as for
that of the infidel. They did not understand that Manfred was
necessarily a heretic, and that, as Alexander soon afterwards de-
clared to Bainerio Saccone, it was more important to defend the
faith at home than in foreign lands. In 1264, when Alphonse of
Boitiers was projecting a crusade, Urban IY. urged him to change
his purpose and assail Manfred, Finally, when Charles of Anjou
was induced to strive for the glittering prize, all the enginery of
the Church was exerted to raise for him an army of crusaders with
a lavish distribution of the treasures of salvation. The shreivd
lawyer, Clement IY., seconded and justified the appeal to arms
by a formal trial for heresy. Just as the crusade was burst-
ing upon him, Clement was summoning him to present himself
for trial as a suspected heretic. The term assigned to him was
February 2, 1266 ; Manfred had more pressing cares at the mo-
ment, and contented himself with sending procurators to offer
purgation for him. As he did not appear personally, Clement, on
February 21, called upon the consistory to declare him condemned
as a contumacious heretic, arguing that his excuse that the enemy
were upon him was invalid, since he had only to give up his king-
dom to avert attack. As but five days after this, on February 26,
Manfred fell upon the disastrous field of Benevento, the legal pro-
ceedings had no influence on the result, yet none the less do they
serve to show the spirit in which Borne administered against its
political opponents the laws which it had enacted against heresy.*
* Th. Cantimpratens. Bonum universale, Lib. 11. c. 2.— Matt. Paris ann. 1255
III.— 13
194 POLITICAL HERESY. — THE CHURCH.
This was the virtual destruction of the imperial power in Italy.
With the Angevines on the throne of Naples and the empire nul-
lified by the Great Interregnum and its consequences, the popes
had ample opportunity to employ the penalties for heresy to grat-
ify hatred or to extend their power. How they used the weapon
for the one purpose is seen when Boniface Till, quarrelled with
the Colonnas and condemned them as heretics, driving the whole
family out of Italy, tearing down their houses and destroying
their property ; though after Sciarra Colonna vindicated his ortho-
doxy by capturing and causing the death of Boniface at Anagni,
Benedict XI. made haste to reverse the sentence, except as to con-
fiscation.* How the principle worked when applied to temporal
aggrandizement may be estimated from the attempt of Clement V.
to gain possession of Ferrara. When the Marchese Azzo d' Este
died, in 1308, he left no legitimate heirs, and the Bishop of Ferrara
was Fra Guido Maltraverso, the former inquisitor who had suc-
ceeded in burning the bones of Armanno Pongilupo. He forth-
with commenced intriguing to secure the city for the Holy See,
which had some shadowy claims arising under the donations of
Charlemagne. Clement V. eagerly grasped at the opportunity.
He pronounced the rights of the Church unquestionable, and con-
doled with the Ferrarese on their having been so long deprived of
the sweetness of clerical rule and subjected to those who devoured
them. There were two pretenders, Azzo's brother Francesco and
his natural son Frisco. The Ferrarese desired neither ; they even
(p. 614).— Ripoll I. 326.— Raynald. ann. 1264, No. 14.— Arch, de lTnq. de Car-
cassonne (Doat, XXXII. 27).
Clement IV. (Gui Foucoix) was regarded as one of the best lawyers of his
day, but in the severity of his application of the law against Manfred he was
not unanimously supported by the cardinals. On February 20 he writes to
the Cardinal of S. Martino, his legate in the Mark of Ancona, for his opinion on
the question. Manfred and Uberto Pallavicino had both been cited to appear
on trial for heresy. Manfred had sent procurators to offer purgation, but Uberto
had disregarded the summons and was a contumacious heretic. To the con-
demnation of the latter there was therefore no opposition, but some cardinals
thought that Manfred's excuse was reasonable in view of the enemy at his gates,
even though he could easily avert attack by surrender.— Clement PP. IV. Epist.
232 (Martene Thesaur. H. 279).
* C. 1, Sexto v. 3.— C. 1, Extrav. Commun. v. 4.
CRUSADE AGAINST FERRARA. 195
manifested a disregard for the blessings promised them by Clem-
ent and proclaimed a republic. Frisco sought the aid of the
Venetians, while Francesco secured the support of the Church.
Frisco obtained possession, but fled when Francesco advanced
with the papal legate, Arnaldo di Pelagrua, who assumed the
domination of the city — as a contemporary chronicler observes,
Francesco had no reason to be disappointed, for ecclesiastics al-
ways act like rapacious wolves. Then, with the aid of the Vene-
tians, Frisco regained possession, and peace was made in December,
1308. This was but the commencement of the struggle for the
unhappy citizens. In 1309 Clement proclaimed a crusade against
the Venetians. March 7 he issued a bull casting an interdict
over Venice with confiscation of all its possessions, excommunicat-
ing the doge, the senate, and all the gentlemen of the republic,
and offering Venetians to slavery throughout the world. As their
ships sailed to every port, many Venetian merchants were reduced
to servitude throughout Christendom. The legate assiduously
preached the crusade, and all the bishops of the region assembled
at Bologna with such forces as they could raise. Multitudes took
the cross to gain the indulgence, Bologna alone furnishing eight
thousand troops, and the legate advanced with an overwhelming
army. After severe fighting the Venetians were defeated with
such slaughter that the legate, to avert a pestilence, offered an
indulgence to every man who would bury a dead body, and the
fugitives drowned in the Po were so numerous that the water
was corrupted and rendered unfit to drink. All the prisoners
taken he blinded and sent to Venice, and on entering the city he
hanged all the adherents of Frisco. Appointing a governor in
the name of the Church, he returned to Avignon and was splen-
didly rewarded for his services in the cause of Christ, while Clem-
ent unctuously congratulated the Ferrarese on their return to the
sweet bosom of the Church, and declared that no one could, with-
out sighs and tears, reflect upon their miseries and afflictions under
their native rulers. In spite of this the ungrateful people, chaf-
ing under the foreign domination, arose in 1310 and massacred
the papalists. Then the legate returned with a Bolognese force,
regained possession and hanged the rebels, with the exception of
one, who bought off his life. Fresh tumults occurred, with bloody
reprisals and frightful atrocities on both sides until, in 1314, Clem-
196 POLITICAL HERESY. — THE CHURCH.
ent, wearied with his prize, made it over to Sancha, wife of Robert
of Xaples. The Gascon garrison excited the hatred of the people,
who in 1317 invited Azzo, son of Francesco, to come to their re-
lief. After a stubborn resistance the Gascons surrendered on
promise of life, but the fury of the people would not be restrained,
and they were slain to the last man. From this brief episode in
the history of an Italian city we can conceive what was the in-
fluence of papal ambition stimulated by the facility with which
its opponents could be condemned as heretics and armies be raised
at will to defend the faith."
John XXII. was not a pope to allow the spiritual sword to
rust in the sheath, and we have seen incidentally the use which
he made of the charge of heresy in his mortal combat with Louis
of Bavaria. Still more characteristic were his proceedings against
the Yisconti of Milan. On his accession in August, 1316, his first
thought was to unite Italy under his overlordship, and to keep
the empire beyond the Alps, for which the contested election of
Louis of Bavaria and Frederic of Austria seemed to offer full op-
portunity. Early in December he despatched Bernard Gui, the
Inquisitor of Toulouse, and Bertrand, Franciscan Minister of Aqui-
taine, as nuncios to effect that purpose. Neither Guelfs nor Ghib-
elhnes were inclined to accept his views — the Ferrarese troubles,
not as yet concluded, were full of pregnant warnings. Especially
* Barbarano de1 Mironi, Hist. Eccles. di Vicenza II. 153-4. — Regest. Clement.
PP. V. T. III. pp. 354 sqq. ; T. IV. pp. 426 sqq., pp. 459 sqq. ; T. V.p. 412. (Ed.
Benedictin., Romas, 1886-7).— Chron. Estense ann. 1309-17 (Muratori S. R. I. XV.
364-82).— FerretiVincentini Hist. Lib. in. (lb. IX. 1037-47).— Cronica di Bologna,
ann. 1309-10 (lb. XVIII. 320-1).— Campi, Dell1 Histor. Eccles. di Ferrara, P. in.
p. 40.
Even the pious and temperate Muratori cannot restrain himsell from describ-
ing Clement's bull against the Venetians as " la piu tei'ribile ed ingiusta Bolla che
si sia mai udita" (Annal. ann. 1309). We have seen in the case of Florence what
control such measures enabled the papacy to exercise over the commercial re-
publics of Italy. The confiscation threatened in the sentence of excommunica-
tion was no idle menace. When, in 1281, Martin IV. quarrelled with the city of
Forliand excommunicated it he ordered, under pain of excommunication not re-
movable even on the death-bed, all who owed money to the citizens to declare
the debts to his representatives and pay them over, and he thus collected many
thousand lire of his enemies' substance. — Chron. Parmeus. ann. 1281 (Muratori
S. R. I. IX. 797)
THE CASE OF THE VISCONTI. 197
recalcitrant were the three Ghibeliine chiefs of Lombardy, Matteo
Yisconti, known as the Great, who ruled over the greater part of
the region and still retained the title of Imperial Yicar bestowed
on him by Henry YIL, Cane della Scala, Lord of Yerona, and Pas-
serino of Mantua. They received his envoys with all due honor,
but found excuses for evading his commands. In March, 1317,
John issued a bull in which he declared that all the imperial
appointments had lapsed on the death of Henry, that until his
successor had received the papal approval all the power of the
empire vested in the Holy See, and that whoever presumed to
exercise those powers without permission was guilty of treason
to the Church. Papal imperiousness on one side and Ghibeliine
stubbornness on the other rendered a rupture inevitable. It is not
our province to trace the intricate maze of diplomatic intrigue and
military activity which followed, with the balance of success pre-
ponderating decidedly in favor of the Ghibellines. April 6, 1318,
came a bull decreeing excommunication on Matteo, Cane, Passeri-
no, and all who refused obedience. This was speedily followed by
formal monitions and citations to trial on charges of heresy, Mat-
teo and his sons being the chief objects of persecution. It was not
difficult to find materials for these, furnished by refugees from
Milan at the papal court — Bonifacio di Farra, Lorenzo Gallmi, and
others. The Yisconti were accused of erring in the faith, especially
as to the resurrection, of invoking the devil, with whom they had
compacts, of protecting Guglielma ; they were fautors of heretics
and impeders of the Inquisition ; they had robbed churches, vio-
lated nuns, and tortured and slain priests. The Yisconti remained
contumaciously absent and were duly condemned as heretics. Mat-
teo summoned a conference of the Ghibeliine chiefs at Soncino,
which treated the action of the pope as an effort to resuscitate the
failing cause of the Guelfs. A Ghibeliine league was formed with
Can Grande della Scala as captain of its forces. To meet this John
called in the aid of France, appointed Philippe de Yalois Imperial
Yicar, and procured a French invasion which proved bootless. Then
he sent his son or nephew, Cardinal Bertrand de Poyet as legate,
with the title of " pacifier," at the head of a crusading army raised
by a lavish distribution of indulgences. As Petrarch says, he as-
sailed Milan as though it were an infidel city, like Memphis or
Damascus, and Poyet, whose ferocity was a proof of his paternity,
198 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE CHURCH.
came not as an apostle, but as a robber. A devastating war ensued,
with little advantage to the papalists, but the spiritual sword proved
more effective than the temporal. May 26, 1321, the sentence of
condemnation was solemnly promulgated in the Church of San
Stefano at Basseguano, and was repeated by the inquisitors March
14, 1322, at Valenza.*
Strange as it may seem, these proceedings appear to have had
a decisive influence on public opinion. It is true that when, in the
seventeenth century, Paolo Sarpi alluded to these transactions and
assumed that Matteo's only crime was his adherence to Louis of
Bavaria, Cardinal Albizio admitted the fact, and argued that those
who adhered to a schismatic and heretic emperor, and disregarded
the censures of the Church, rendered themselves suspect of heresy
and became formal heretics. Yet this was not the impression at
the time, and John had recognized that something more was re-
quired than such a charge of mere technical heresy. The Continua-
tion of Xangis, which reflects with fidelity the current of popular
thought, recounts the sins of Matteo and his sons, described in
the papal sentence, as a new heresy arisen in Lombardy, and the
papalist military operations as a righteous crusade for its suppres-
sion. Although this was naturally a French view of the matter,
it was not confined to France. In Lombardy Matteo's friends
were discouraged and his enemies took fresh heart. A peace party
speedily formed itself in Milan, and the question was openly asked
whether the whole region should be sacrificed for the sake of one
man. In spite of Matteo's success in buying off Frederic of Aus-
tria, whom John had bribed with gold and promises to intervene
with an army, the situation grew untenable even for his seasoned
nerves. It is, perhaps, worthy of mention that Francesco Gar-
bagnate, the old Guglielmite, association with whom was one of
the proofs of heresy alleged against Matteo, was one of the efficient
* Preger, Die Politik des Pabstes Johann XXII., Miincben, 1885, pp. 6-10,
21. — Petrarchi Lib. sine Titulo Epist. xviii. — Raynald. ann. 1317, No. 27; ann.
1320, No. 10-14; ann. 1322, No. 6-8, 11.— Bernard. Corio, Hist, Milanese, ann.
1318, 1320, 1321-22.
A bull of John XXII., Jan. 28, 1322, ordering the sale of indulgences to aid
the crusade of Cardinal Bertrand, recites the heresy of Visconti and his refusal
to obey the summons for his trial as the reason for assailing him. — Regest. CJem.
PP. V., Romae, 1885. T. I. Prolegom. p. cxcviii.
THE CASE OF THE VISCONTI. 199
agents in procuring his downfall, for Matteo had estranged him
by refusing him the captaincy of the Milanese militia. Matteo
sent to the legate to beg for terms, and was told that nothing
short of abdication would be listened to ; he consulted the citizens
and was given to understand that Milan would not expose itself
to ruin for his sake. He yielded to the storm — perhaps his sev-
enty-two years had somewhat weakened his powers of resistance
— -he sent for his son Galeazzo, with whom he had quarrelled, and
resigned to him his power, with an expression of regret that his
quarrel with the Church had made the citizens his enemies. From
that time forth he devoted himself to visiting the churches. In
the Chiesa Maggiore he assembled the clergy, recited the Symbol
in a loud voice, crying that it had been his faith during life, and
that any assertion to the contrary was false, and of this he caused
a public instrument to be drawn up. Departing thence like to
one crazed, he hastened to Monza to visit the Church of S. Giovanni
Battista, where he was taken sick and was brought back to the
Monastery of Cresconzago, and died within three days, on June 27,
to be thrust into unconsecrated ground. The Church might well
boast that its ban had broken the spirit of the greatest Italian of
the age.*
The younger Yisconti — Galeazzo, Lucchino, Marco, Giovanni,
and Stefano — were not so impressionable, and rapidly concen-
trated the Ghibelline forces which seemed to be breaking in pieces.
To give them their coup de grace, the pope, December 23, 1322,
ordered Aicardo, the Archbishop of Milan, and the Inquisition to
proceed against the memory of Matteo. January 13, 1323, from
the safe retreat of Asti, Aicardo and three inquisitors, Pace da
Yedano, Giordano da Montecucho, and Honesto da Pa via, cited
him for appearance on February 25, in the Church of Santa Maria
at Borgo, near Alessandria, to be tried and judged, whether pres-
ent or not, and this citation they affixed on the portals of Santa
Maria and of the cathedral of Alessandria. On the appointed day
they were there, but a military demonstration of Marco Yisconti
disturbed them, to the prejudice of the faith and impeding of the
* Sarpi, Discorso, p. 25 (Ed. Helmstadt). — Albizio, Risposto al P. Paolo
Sarpi, p. 75.— Continuat. Guill. Nangiac. ann. 1317. — Bern. Corio, aim. 1322. —
Regest. Joann. PP. XXII. No. 89, 93, 94, 95 (Harduiu. VII. 1432).
200 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE CHURCH.
Inquisition. Transferring themselves to the securer walls of Ya-
lenza, they heard witnesses and collected testimony, and on March
14 they condemned Matteo as a defiant and unrepentant heretic.
He had imposed taxes on the churches and collected them by vio-
lence ; he had forcibly installed his creatures as superiors in mon-
asteries and his concubines in nunneries ; he had imprisoned eccle-
siastics and tortured them — some had died in prison and others
still lingered there ; he had expelled prelates and seized their
lands ; he had prevented the transmission of money to the papal
camera, even sums collected for the Holy Land ; he had inter-
cepted and opened letters between the pope and the legates ; he
had attacked and slain crusaders assembled in Milan for the Holy
Land ; he had disregarded excommunication, thus showing that
he erred in the faith as to the sacraments and the power of the
keys ; he had prevented the interdict laid upon Milan from being
observed ; he had obstructed prelates from holding synods and
visiting their dioceses, thus favoring heresies and scandals ; his
enormous crimes show that he is an offshoot of heresy, his ances-
tors having been suspect and some of them burned, and he has for
officials and confidants heretics, such as Francesco Garbagnate, on
whom crosses had been imposed ; he has expelled the Inquisition
from Florence and impeded it for several years ; he interposed in
favor of Maifreda who was burned ; he is an invoker of demons,
seeking from them advice and responses ; he denies the resurrec-
tion of the flesh ; he has endured papal excommunication for more
than three years, and when cited for examination into his faith he
refused to appear. He is, therefore, condemned as a contuma-
cious heretic, all his territories are declared confiscated, he himself
deprived of all honors, station, and dignities, and liable to the pen-
alties decreed for heresy, his person to be captured, and his chil-
dren and grandchildren subjected to the customary disabilities.*
This curious farrago of accusations is worth reciting, as it shows
what was regarded as heresy in an opponent of the temporal power
of the papacy — that the simplest acts of self-defence against an
enemy who was carrying on active war against him were gravely
treated as heretical, and constituted valid reasons for inflicting
all the tremendous penalties prescribed by the laws for lapses
Ughelli, Italia Sacra, IV. 286-93 (Ed. 1652).
THE GHIBELLINES OF LOMBARDY. 201
in faith. Politically, however, the portentous sentence was inop-
erative. Galeazzo maintained the field, and in February, 1324,
inflicted a crushing defeat on the papal troops, the cardinal-legate
barely escaping by flight, and his general, Paymondo di Cardona
being carried a prisoner to Milan. Fresh comminations were nec-
essarv to stimulate the faithful, and March 23 John issued a bull
condemning Matteo and his five sons, reciting their evil deeds for
the most part in the words of the inquisitorial sentence, though
the looseness of the whole incrimination is seen in the omission of
the most serious charge of all — that of demon-worship — and the
defence of Maifreda is replaced by a statement that Matteo had
interfered to save Galeazzo, who was now stated to have been a
Guglielmite. The bull concludes by offering Holy Land indul-
gences to all who would assail the Visconti. This was followed,
April 12, by another, reciting that the sons of Matteo had been
by competent judges duly convicted and sentenced for heresy,
but in spite of this, Berthold of ISTyffen, calling himself Imperial
Yicar of Lombardy, and other representatives of Louis of Bava-
ria, had assisted the said heretics in resisting the faithful Catholics
who had taken up arms against them. They are therefore allowed
two months in which to lay down their pretended offices and sub-
mit, as they have rendered themselves excommunicate and subject
to all the penalties, spiritual and temporal, of fautorship.*
It is scarce worth while to pursue further the dreary details of
these forgotten quarrels, except to indicate that the case of the Vis-
conti was in no sense exceptional, and that the same weapons were
employed by John against all who crossed his ambitious schemes.
The Inquisitor Accursio of Florence had proceeded in the same
way against Castruccio of Lucca, as a fautor of heretics ; the in-
quisitors of the March of Ancona had condemned Guido Malapieri,
Bishop of Arezzo, and other Ghibellines for supporting Louis of
Bavaria. Fra Lamberto del Cordiglio, Inquisitor of Romagnuola,
was ordered to use his utmost exertions to punish those within his
district. Louis of Bavaria, in his appeal of 1324, states that the
same prosecutions were brought, and sentences for heresy pro-
nounced, against Cane della Scala, Passerino, the Marquises of
Montferrat, Saluces, Ceva, and others, the Genoese, the Lucchese,
* Raynald. ann. 1324, No. 7-12.— Martene Thesaur. II. 754-6.
202 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE CHURCH.
and the cities of Milan, Como, Bergamo, Cremona, Yercelli, Trino,
Yailate, Piacenza, Parma, Brescia, Alessandria, Tortona, Albenga,
Pisa, Aretino, etc. We have a specimen of Fra Lamberto's opera-
tions in a sentence pronounced by him, February 28, 1328, against
Bernardino, Count of Cona. He had already condemned for heresy
Bainaldo and Oppizo d' Este, in spite of which Bernardino had
visited them in Ferrara, had eaten and drunk with them, and was
said to have entered into a league with them. For these offences
Lamberto summoned him to stand trial before the Inquisition.
He duly appeared, and admitted the visit and banquet, but denied
the alliance. Lamberto proceeded to take testimony, called an
assembly of experts, and in due form pronounced him a fautor of
heretics, condemning him, as such, to degradation from his rank
and knighthood, and incapacity to hold any honors ; his estates
were confiscated to the Church, his person was to be seized and
delivered to the Cardinal-legate Bertrand or to the Inquisition,
and his descendants for two generations were declared incapable
of holding any office or benefice. All this was for the greater
glory of God, for when, in 1326, John begged the clergy of Ireland
to send him money, it was, he said, for the purpose of defending
the faith against the heretics of Italy. Yet the Holy See was per-
fectly ready, when occasion suited, to admit that this wholesale
distribution of damnation 'was a mere prostitution of its control
over the salvation of mankind. After the Yisconti had been rec-
onciled with the papacy, in 1337, Lucchino, who was anxious to
have Christian burial for his father, applied to Benedict XII. to
reopen the process. In February of that year, accordingly, Bene-
dict wrote to Pace da Yedano, who had conducted the proceedings
against the Yisconti and against the citizens of Milan, Xovara,
Bergamo, Cremona, Como, Yercelli, and other places for adhering
to them, and who had been rewarded with the bishopric of Trieste,
requiring him to send by Pentecost all the documents concerning
the trial. The affair was protracted, doubtless owing to political
vicissitudes, but at length, in May, 1341, Benedict took no shame in
pronouncing the whole proceedings null and void for irregularity
and injustice. Still the same machinery was used against Bernabo
Yisconti, who was summoned by Innocent YI. to appear at Avignon
on March 1, 1363, for trial as a heretic, and as he only sent a pro-
curator, he was promptly condemned by Urban Y. on March 3,
RIENZO.— THE MAFFREDI. 203
and a crusade was preached against him. In 1364 he made his
peace, but in 1372 the perennial quarrel broke out afresh, he was
excommunicated by Gregory XI., and in January, 1373, he was
summoned to stand another trial for heresy on March 28.*
In the same way heresy was the easiest charge to bring against
Cola di Kienzo when he disregarded the papal sovereignty over
Eome. When he failed to obey the summons to appear he was
duly excommunicated for contumacy ; the legate Giovanni, Bishop
of Spoleto, held an inquisition on him, and in 1350 he was formally
declared a heretic. The decision was sent to the Emperor Charles
IV., who held him at that time prisoner in Prague, and who duti-
fully despatched him to Avignon. There, on a first examination,
he was condemned to death, but he made his peace, and there ap-
peared to be an opportunity of using him to advantage ; he was
therefore finally pronounced a good Christian, and was sent back
to Rome with a legate, f
The Maff redi of Faenza afford a case very similar to that of the
Yisconti. In 1345 we find them in high favor with Clement VI.
In 1350 they are opposing the papal policy of aggrandizement in
Romagnuola. Cited to appear in answer to charges of heresy, they
refuse to do so, and in July, 1352, are excommunicated for contu-
macy. In June, 1354, Innocent VI. recites their persistent endur-
ance of this excommunication, and gives them until October 10 to
put in an appearance. On that day he condemns them as contu-
macious heretics, declares them deprived of all lands and honors,
and subject to the canonical and civil penalties of heresy. To ex-
ecute the sentence was not so easy, but in 1356 Innocent offered
Louis, King of Hungary, who had shown his zeal against the Ca-
* Martene Thesaur. II. 743-5.— Wadding, ann. 1324, No. 28; ann. 1326, No.
8 ; ann. 1327, No. 2.— Ripoll II. 172 ; VII. 60.— Regest. Clement. PP. V., Romas,
1885, T. I. Proleg. p. ccxiii. — Theiner Monument. Hibern. et Scotor. No. 462,
p. 234.— C. 4, Septimo v. 3.— Mag. Bull. Rom. I. 204.— Baluz. et Mansi III. 227.—
UghellilV. 294-5, 314.— Raynald. ann. 1362, No. 13; ann. 1363, No. 2,4; ann.
1372, No. 1 ; ann. 1373, No. 10, 12.
In spite of the decision of Benedict, Matteo and his sons, Galeazzo, Marco, and
Stefano, were still unburied in 1353, when the remaining brother, Giovanni, made
another effort to secure Christian sepulture for them.- -Raynald. ann. 1353, No. 28.
t Raynald. ann. 1348, No. 13-14; ann i350, No. 5.— Muratori Antiq. VII.
884, 928-32.
204 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE CHURCH.
thari of Bosnia, three years' tithe of the Hungarian churches if he
would put down those sons of damnation, the Maflredi, who have
been sentenced as heretics, and other adversaries of the Church,
including the Ordelaffi of Friuli. Fra Fortanerio, Patriarch of
Grado, was also commissioned to preach a crusade against them,
and succeeded in raising an army under Malatesta of Rimini. The
appearance of forty thousand Hungarians in the Tarvisina fright-
ened all Italy ; the Maffredi succumbed, and in the same year In-
nocent ordered their absolution and reconciliation.*
It would be easy to multiply instances, but these will probably
suffice to show the use made by the Church of heresy as a politi-
cal agent, and of the Inquisition as a convenient instrumentality
for its application. When the Great Schism arose it was natural
that the same methods should be employed by the rival popes
against each other. As early as 1382 we find Charles III. of Xa-
ples confiscating the property of the Bishop of Trivento, just dead,
as that of a heretic because he had adhered to Clement VII. In
the commission issued in 1409 by Alexander Y. to Pons Feugeyron,
as Inquisitor of Provence, the adherents of Gregory XII. and of
Benedict XIII. are enumerated among the heretics whom he is to
exterminate. It happened that Frere Etienne de Combes, Inquisi-
* Werunsky Excerptt. ex Registt. Clem. VI. et Innoc. VI. pp. 37, 74, 87, 101. —
Wadding, aim. 1356, No. 7, 20.— Raynald. ann. 1356, No. 33.
This abuse of spiritual power for purposes of territorial aggrandizement did
not escape the trenchant satire of Erasmus. He describes " the terrible thunder-
bolt which by a nod will send the souls of mortals to the deepest hell, and which
the vicars of Christ discharge with special wrath on those who, instigated by the
devil, seek to nibble at the Patrimony of Peter. It is thus they call the cities and
territories and revenues for which they fight with fire and sword, spilling much
Christian blood, and they believe themselves to be defending like apostles the
spouse of Christ, the Church, by driving away those whom they stigmatize as
her enemies, as if she could have any worse enemies than impious pontiffs." —
Encom. Moriae. Ed. Lipsiens. 1829, II. 379.
That the character of these papal wars had not been softened since the hor-
rors described above at Ferrara, is seen in the massacre of Cesena, in 1376, when
the papal legate, Robert, Cardinal of Geneva, ordered all the inhabitants put to
the sword, without distinction of age or sex, after they had admitted him and
his bandits into the city under his solemn oath that no injury should be inflicted
on them. The number of the slain was estimated at five thousand. — Poggii
Hist. Florentin. Lib. h. ann. 1376.
JOHN MALKAW. 205
tor of Toulouse, held to the party of Benedict XIII. , and he retali-
ated by imprisoning a number of otherwise unimpeachable Domin-
icans and Franciscans, including the Provincial of Toulouse and
the Prior of Carcassonne, for which the provincial, as soon as he
had an opportunity, removed him and appointed a successor, giv-
ing rise to no little trouble.*
The manner in which the Inquisition was used as an instrument
by the contending factions in the Church is fairly illustrated by
the adventures of John Malkaw, of Prussian Strassburg (Brodnitz).
He was a secular priest and master of theology, deeply learned,
skilful in debate, singularly eloquent, and unflinching even to rash-
ness. Espousing the cause of the Roman popes against their
Avignonese rivals with all the enthusiasm of his fiery nature, he
came to the Phinelands in 1390, where his sermons stirred the pop-
ular heart and proved an effective agency in the strife. After
some severe experiences in Mainz at the hands of the opposite fac-
tion, he undertook a pilgrimage to Pome, but tarried at Strassburg,
where he found a congenial field. The city had adhered to Urban
VI. and his successors, but the bishop, Frederic of Blankenheim,
had alienated a portion of his clergy by his oppressions. In the
quarrel he excommunicated them; they appealed to Pome and
had the excommunication set aside, whereupon he went over, with
his following, to Clement VII., the Avignonese antipope, giving
rise to inextricable confusion. The situation was exactly suited to
Malkaw's temperament ; he threw himself into the turmoil, and
his fiery eloquence soon threatened to deprive the antipapalists of
their preponderance. According to his own statement he quickly
won over some sixteen thousand schismatics and neutrals, and the
nature of his appeals to the passions of the hour may be guessed
by his own report of a sermon in which he denounced Clement
VII. as less than a man, as worse than the devil, whose portion
was with Antichrist, while his followers were all condemned
schismatics and heretics ; neutrals, moreover, were the worst of
men and were deprived of all sacraments. Besides this he assailed
with the same unsparing vehemence the deplorable morals of the
Strassburg clergy, both regular and secular, and in a few weeks he
* MSS. Chioccarello T. VIIL— Wadding, ann. 1409, No. 12.— Ripoll II. 510,
522, 566.
206 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE CHURCH.
thus excited the bitterest hostility. A plot was made to denounce
him secretly in Rome as a heretic, so that on his arrival there he
might be seized by the Inquisition and burned; his wonderful
learning, it was said, could only have been acquired by necro-
mancy ; he was accused of being a runaway priest, and it was pro-
posed to arrest him as such, but the people regarded him as an
inspired prophet and the project was abandoned. After four weeks
of this stormy agitation he resumed his pilgrimage, stopping at
Basle and Zurich for missionary work, and finally reached Rome
in safety. On his return, in crossing the Pass of St. Bernard, he
had the misfortune to lose his papers. Xews of this reached Basle,
and on his arrival there the Mendicants, to whom he was peculiarly
obnoxious, demanded of Bishop Imer that he should be arrested
as a wanderer without license. The bishop, though belonging to
the Roman obedience, yielded, but shortly dismissed him with a
friendly caution to return to his home. His dauntless combative-
ness, however, carried him back to Strassburg, where he again
began to preach under the protection of the burgomaster, John
Bock. On his previous visit he had been personally threatened
by the Dominican inquisitor, Bockeler — the same who in 1400 per-
secuted the "Winkelers — and it was now determined to act with
vigor. He had preached but three sermons when he was suddenly
arrested, without citation, by the familiars of the inquisitor and
thrown in prison, whence he was carried in chains to the episcopal
castle of Benfeld and deprived of his books and paper and ink.
Sundry examinations followed, in which his rare dexterity scarce
enabled him to escape the ingenious efforts to entrap him. Finally,
on March 31, 1391, Bockeler summoned an assembly, consisting
principally of Mendicants, where he was found guilty of a series
of charges, which show how easily the accusation of heresy could
be used for the destruction of any man. His real offence was his
attacks on the schismatics and on the corruption of the clergy, but
nothing of this appears in the articles. It was assumed that he
had left his diocese without the consent of his bishop, and this
proved him to be a Lollard ; that he discharged priestly functions
without a license, showing him to be a Taudois; because his ad-
mirers ate what he had already bitten, he was declared to belong
to the Brethren of the Free Spirit ; because he forbade the dis-
cussion as to whether Christ was alive when pierced with the
JOHN MALKAW. 207
lance, he was asserted to have taught that doctrine, and, therefore,
to be a follower of Jean Pierre Olivi. All this was surely enough
to warrant his burning, if he should obstinately refuse to recant,
but apparently it was felt that the magistracy would decline to
execute the sentence, and the assembly contented itself with refer-
ring the matter to the bishop and asking his banishment from the
diocese. Nothing further is known of the trial, but as, in 1392,
Malkaw is found matriculating himself in the University of Co-
logne, the bishop probably did as he was asked.
We lose sight of Malkaw until about 1414, when we meet him
again in Cologne. He had maintained his loyalty to the Roman
obedience, but that obedience had been still further fractioned
between Gregory XII. and John XXIII. Malkaw's support of
the former was accompanied with the same unsparing denuncia-
tion of John as he had formerly bestowed on the Avignonese
antipopes. The Johannites were heretics, fit only for the stake.
Cologne was as attractive a field for the audacious polemic as the
Strassburg of a quarter of a century earlier. Two rival candi-
dates for the archbishopric were vindicating their claims in a
bloody civil war, one of them as a supporter of Gregory, the other
of John. Malkaw was soon recognized as a man whose eloquence
was highly dangerous amid an excitable population, and again the
Inquisition took hold of him as a heretic. The inquisitor, Jacob
of Soest, a Dominican and professor in the university, seems to
have treated him with exceptional leniency, for while the investi-
gation was on foot he was allowed to remain in the St. Ursula
quarter, on parole. He broke his word and betook himself to
Bacharach, where, under the protection of the Archbishop of Treves,
and of the Palsgrave Louis III., both Gregorians, he maintained
the fight with his customary vehemence, assailing the inquisitor
and the Johannites, not only in sermons, but in an incessant
stream of pamphlets which kept them in a state of indignant
alarm. When Cardinal John of Ragusa, Gregory's legate to the
Council of Constance, came to Germany, Malkaw had no difficulty
in procuring from him absolution from the inquisitorial excom-
munication, and acquittal of the charge of heresy ; and this was
confirmed when on healing the schism the council, in July, 1415,
declared null and void all prosecutions and sentences arising from
it. Still, the wounded pride of the inquisitor and of the University
208 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE CHURCH.
of Cologne refused to be placated, and for a year they continued
to seek from the Council the condemnation of their enemy. Their
deputies, however, warned them that the prosecution would be
prolonged, difficult, and costly, and they finally came to the resolu-
tion that the action of the Cardinal of Ragusa should be regarded
as binding, so long as Malkaw kept away from the territory of
Cologne, but should be disregarded if he ventured to return — a
very sensible, if somewhat illogical, conclusion. The obstinacy
with which Benedict XIII. and Clement VIII. maintained their
position after the decision of the Council of Constance prolonged
the struggle in southwestern Europe, and as late as 1428 the rem-
nants of their adherents in Languedoc were proceeded against as
heretics by a special papal commissioner.*
When the schism was past the Inquisition could still be util-
ized to quell insubordination. Thomas Connecte, a Carmelite of
Britanny, seems to have been a character somewhat akin to John
Malkaw. In 142 S we hear of him in Flanders, Artois, Picardy,
and the neighboring provinces, preaching to crowds of fifteen or
twenty thousand souls, denouncing the prevalent vices of the time.
The hennins, or tall head-dresses worn by women of rank, were
the object of special vituperation, and he used to give boys certain
days of pardon for following ladies thus attired, and crying " au
Jiennin" or even slyly pulling them off. Moved by the eloquence
of his sermons, great piles would be made of dice, tables, chess-
boards, cards, nine-pins, head-dresses, and other matters of vice
and luxury, which were duly burned. The chief source, however,
of the immense popular favor which he enjoyed was his bitter
lashing of the corruption of all ranks of the clergy, particularly
their public concubinage, which won him great applause and
honor. He seems to have reached the conclusion that the only
cure for this universal sin was the restoration of clerical marriage.
In 1432 he went to Home in the train of the Venetian ambassa-
dors, to declaim against the vices of the curia. Usually there was
a good-natured indifference to these attacks — a toleration born of
contempt — but the moment was unpropitious. The Hussite heresy
had commenced in similar wise, and its persistence was a warning
* H. Haupt, Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte, 1883, pp. 323 sqq. — Vaissette,
fid. Privat, X. Pr. 2089.
THOMAS CONNECTE. 209
not to be disregarded. Besides, at that time Eugenius IV. was
engaged in a losing struggle with the Council of Basle, which was
bent on reforming the curia, in obedience to the universal demand
of Christendom, and Sigismund's envoys were representing to
Eugenius, with more strength than courtliness, the disastrous re-
sults to be expected from his efforts to prorogue the council.
Connecte might well be suspected of being an emissary of the
fathers of Basle, or, if not, his eloquence at least was a dangerous
element in the perturbed state of public opinion. Twice Eugenius
sent for him, but he refused to come, pretending to be sick ; then
the papal treasurer was sent to fetch him, but on his appearing
Thomas jumped out of the window and attempted to escape. He
was promptly secured and carried before Eugenius, who commis-
sioned the Cardinals of Rouen and Navarre to examine him. These
found him suspect of heresy ; he was duly tried and condemned
as a heretic, and his inconsiderate zeal found a lasting quietus at
the stake.*
There are certain points of resemblance between Thomas Con-
necte and Girolamo Savonarola, but the Italian was a man of far
rarer intellectual and spiritual gifts than the Breton. With equal
moral earnestness, his plans and aspirations were wider and of
more dangerous import, and they led him into a sphere of political
activity in which his fate was inevitable from the beginning.
In Italy the revival of letters, while elevating the intellectual
faculties, had been accompanied with deeper degradation in both
the moral and spiritual condition of society. Without removing
superstition, it had rendered scepticism fashionable, and it had
weakened the sanctions of religion without supplying another
basis for morality. The world has probably never seen a more
defiant disregard of all law, human and divine, than that dis-
played by both the Church and the laity during the pontificates
of Sixtus IV. and Innocent VIII. and Alexander VI. Increase
of culture and of wealth seemed only to afford new attractions
and enlarged opportunities for luxury and vice, and from the
highest to the lowest there was indulgence of unbridled appetites,
* Monstrelet, II. 53, 127.— Martene Auapi. Coll. VIII. 92.— Altmeyer, Pr6cur
seurs de la Reforme aux Pays-Bas, I. 237.
III.— 14
210 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE CHURCH.
with a cynical disregard even of hypocrisy. To the earnest be-
liever it might well seem that God's wrath could not much longer
be restrained, and that calamities must be impending which would
sweep away the wicked and restore to the Church and to man-
kind the purity and simplicity fondly ascribed to primitive ages.
For centuries a succession of prophets — Joachim of Flora, St.
Catharine of Siena, St. Birgitta of Sweden, the Friends of God,
Tommasino of Foligno, the Monk Telesforo — had arisen with pre-
dictions which had been received with reverence, and as time
passed on and human wickedness increased, some new messenger
of God seemed necessarv to recall his erring children to a sense of
the retribution in store for them if they should continue deaf to
his voice.
That Savonarola honestly believed himself called to such a
mission, no one who has impartially studied his strange career can
well doubt. His lofty sense of the evils of the time, his profound
conviction that God must interfere to work a change which was
beyond human power, his marvellous success in moving his hearers,
his habits of solitude and of profound meditation, his frequent
ecstasies with their resultant visions might well, in a mind like his,
produce such a belief, which, moreover, was one taught by the re-
ceived traditions of the Church as within the possibilities of the
experience of any man. Five years before his first appearance in
Florence, a young hermit who had been devotedly serving in a
leper hospital at Volterra, came thither, preaching and predicting
the wrath to come. He had had visions of St. John and the angel
Raphael, and was burdened with a message to unwilling ears.
Such things, we are told by the diarist who happens to record
this, were occurring every day. In 1491 Rome was agitated by a
mysterious prophet who foretold dire calamities impending in the
near future. There was no lack of such earnest men, but, unlike
Savonarola, their influence and their fate were not such as to pre-
serve their memory.*
* Burlaraacchi, Vita di Savonarola (Baluz. et Mansi I. 533-542). — Luca Lan-
ducci., Diario Fiorentino, Firenze, 1883, p. 30. — Stepb. Infessurae Diar. (Eccard.
Corp. Hist. Med. ^Evi II. 2000).
Villari shows (La Storia di Gir. Savonarola, Firenze, 1887, I. pp. viii.-xi.)
that the life which passes under the name of Burlamacchi is a rifacimento of an
imprinted Latin biography by a disciple of Savonarola. I take this opportunity
SAVONAROLA. 211
When, in his thirtieth year, Savonarola came to Florence, in
1481, his soul was already full of his mission as a reformer. Such
opportunity as he had of expressing his convictions from the pul-
pit he used with earnest zeal, but he produced little effect upon a
community sunk in shameless debauchery, and in the Lent of 1486
he was sent to Lombardy. For three years he preached in the
Lombard cities, gradually acquiring the power of touching the
hearts and consciences of men, and when he was recalled to Flor-
ence in 1489, at the instance of Lorenzo de' Medici, he was already
known as a preacher of rare ability. The effect of his vigorous
eloquence was enhanced by his austere and blameless life, and
within a year he was made Prior of San Marco — the convent of the
Observantine Dominicans, to which Order he belonged. In 1494 he
succeeded in re-establishing the ancient separation of the Domini-
can province of Tuscany from that of Lombardy, and when he was
appointed Yicar-general of the former he was rendered indepen-
dent of all authority save that of the general, Giovacchino Torriani,
who was well affected towards him.*
He claimed to act under the direct inspiration of God, who
dictated his words and actions and revealed to him the secrets of
the future. Not only was this accepted by the mass of the Floren-
tines, but by some of the keenest and most cultured intellects of
the age, such as Francesco Pico della Mirandola and Philippe de
Commines. Marsilio Ficino, the Platonist, admitted it, and went
further by declaring, in 1494, that only Savonarola's holiness had
saved Florence for four years from the vengeance of God on its
wickedness. Nardi relates that when, in 1495, Piero de' Medici was
making a demonstration upon Florence, he personally heard Savon-
arola predict that Piero would advance to the gates and retire with-
out accomplishing anything, which duly came to pass. Others of
his prophecies were fulfilled, such as those of the deaths of Lorenzo
de' Medici and Charles VIII. and the famine of 1497, and his fame
spread throughout Italy, while in Florence his influence became
of expressing my thanks to Signore Villari, for his kindly courtesy in furnishing
me with the second volume of the new edition of his classical work in advance
of publication. My obligations to it will be seen in the numerous references
made to it below.
* Processo Autentico (Baluz. et Mansi IV. 529, 551).— Burlamacchi (Baluz.
et Mansi I. 534-5, 541-2).— Villari, op. cit. Lib. i. c. 5, 9.
212 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE CHURCH.
dominant. Whenever he preached, from twelve to fifteen thou-
sand persons hung upon his lips, and in the great Duomo of Santa
Maria del Fiore it was necessary to build scaffolds and benches
to accommodate the thronging crowds, multitudes of whom would
have cast themselves into fire at a word from him. He paid special
attention to children, and interested them so deeply in his work
that we are told they could not be kept in bed on the mornings
when he preached, but would hurry to the church in advance of
their parents. In the processions which he organized sometimes
five or six thousand boys would take part, and he used them most
effectively in the moral reforms Avhich he introduced in the disso-
lute and pleasure-loving city. The boys of Fra Girolamo were regu-
larly organized, with officers who had their several spheres of duty
assigned to them, and they became a terror to evil-doers. They
entered the taverns and gambling-houses and put a stop to revelry
and dicing and card-playing, and no woman dared to appear upon
the streets save in fitting attire and with a modest mien. " Here
are the boys of the Frate" was a cry which inspired fear in the
most reckless, for any resistance to them was at the risk of life.
Even the annual horse-races of Santo-Barnabo were suppressed,
and it was a sign of Girolamo's waning influence when, in 1497,
the Signoria ordered them resumed, saying, " Are we all to become
monks?" From the gayest and wickedest of cities Florence be-
came the most demure, and the pious long looked back with regret
to the holy time of Savonarola's rule, and thanked God that they
had been allowed to see it."
In one respect we may regret his puritanism and the zeal of
his boys. For the profane mummeries of the carnival in 1498 he
substituted a bonfire of objects which he deemed immodest or
improper, and the voluntary contributions for this purpose were
supplemented by the energy of the boys, who entered houses and
palaces and carried off whatever they deemed fit for the holocaust.
Precious illuminated MSS., ancient sculptures, pictures, rare tapes-
tries, and priceless works of art thus were mingled with the gew-
* Landucci, op. cit. pp. 72, 88, 94, 103, 108, 109, 123-8, 154.— Meraoires de
Commines Liv. viii. c. 19. — Marsilii Ficini opp. Ed. 1561, 1. 963. — Nardi, Historie
Florentine, Lib. n. (Ed. 15T4, pp. 58. 60). — Perrens, Jerome Savonarole, p. 342. —
Burlamacchi (loc. cit. pp. 544-6, 552-3, 556-7).
SAVONAROLA.
213
gaws and vanities of female attire, the mirrors, the musical instru-
ments, the books of divination, astrology, and magic, which went
to make up the total. We can understand the sacrifice of copies
of Boccaccio, but Petrarch might have escaped even Savonarola's
severity of virtue. In this ruthless auto defe, the value of the
objects was such that a Venetian merchant offered the Signoria
twenty thousand scudi for them, which was answered by taking
the would-be chapman's portrait and placing it on top of the pyre.
We cannot wonder that the pile had to be surrounded the night
before by armed guards to prevent the tiepidi from robbing it.*
Had Savonarola's lot been cast under the rigid institutions of
feudalism he would probably have exercised a more lasting influ-
ence on the moral and religious character of the age. It was his
misfortune that in a republic such as Florence the temptation to
take part in politics was irresistible. We cannot wonder that he
eagerly embraced what seemed to be an opportunity of regener-
ating a powerful state, through which he might not unreasonably
hope to influence all Italy, and thus effect a reform in Church and
State which would renovate Christendom. This, as he was assured
by the prophetic voice within him, would be followed by the con-
version of the infidel, and the reign of Christian charity and love
would commence throughout the world.
Misled by these dazzling day-dreams, he had no scruple in
making a practical use of the almost boundless influence which he
had acquired over the populace of Florence. His teachings led to
the revolution which in 1494 expelled the Medici, and he humanely
averted the pitiless bloodshed which commonly accompanied such
movements in the Italian cities. During the Neapolitan expedi-
tion of Charles VIII., in 1494, he did much to cement the alliance
of the republic with that monarch, whom he regarded as the
instrument destined by God to bring about the reform of Italy.
In the reconstruction of the republic in the same year he had, per-
haps, more to do than any one else, both in framing its structure
and dictating its laws ; and when he induced the people to pro-
claim Jesus Christ as the King of Florence, he perhaps himself
hardly recognized how, as the mouthpiece of God, he was inevi-
tably assuming the position of a dictator. It was not only in the
* Landucci, p. 163.— Burlamacchi, pp. 558-9.— Nardi, Lib. n. pp. 56-7.
214 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE CHURCH.
pulpit that he instructed his auditors as to their duties as citizens
and gave vent to his inspiration in foretelling the result, for the
leaders of the popular party were constantly in the habit of seek-
ing his advice and obeying his wishes. Yet, personally, for the
most part, he held himself aloof in austere retirement, and left the
management of details to two confidential agents, selected anions:
the friars of San Marco — Domenico da Pescia, who was some-
what hot-headed and impulsive, and Salvestro Maruffi, who was a
dreamer and somnambulist. In thus descending from the position
of a prophet of God to that of the head of a faction, popularly
known by the contemptuous name of Piagnoni or Mourners, he
staked his all upon the continued supremacy of that faction, and
any failure in his political schemes necessarily was fatal to the
larger and nobler plans of which they were the unstable founda-
tion. In addition to this, his resolute adherence to the alliance
with Charles VIII. finally made his removal necessary to the suc-
cess of the policy of Alexander VI. to unite all the Italian states
against the dangers of another French invasion.*
As though to render failure certain, under a rule dating from
the thirteenth century, the Signoria was changed every two
months, and thus reflected every passing gust of popular passion.
'When the critical time came evervthing turned against him.
The alliance with France, on which he had staked his credit both
as a statesman and a prophet, resulted disastrously. Charles YIII.
was glad at Fornovo to cut his way back to France with shattered
forces, and he never returned, in spite of the threats of God's wrath
which Savonarola repeatedly transmitted to him. He not only
left Florence isolated to face the league of Spain, the papacy,
Yenice, and Milan, but he disappointed the dearest wish of the
Florentines by violating his pledge to restore to them the strong-
hold of Pisa. When the news of this reached Florence, Januarv
1, 1496, the incensed populace held Savonarola responsible, and a
crowd around San Marco at night amused itself with loud threats
to burn " the great hog of a Frate." Besides this was the severe
distress occasioned bv the shrinking of trade and commerce in the
civic disturbances, by the large subsidies paid to Charles YIII., and
* Villari, Lib. n. cap. iv. v.; T. II. App. p. ccxx. — Landucci, pp. 92-4, 112. —
Processo Autentico (Baluze et Mansi IV. 531, 554, 558).
SAVONAROLA. 215
by the drain of the Pisan war, leading to insupportable taxation
and the destruction of public credit, to all which was added the
fearful famine of 1497, followed by pestilence ; such a succession
of misfortunes naturally made the unthinking masses dissatisfied
and ready for a change. The Arrabbiati, or faction in opposition,
were not slow to take advantage of this revulsion of feeling, and
in this they were supported by the dangerous classes and by
all those on whom the puritan reform had pressed heavily. An
association was formed, known as the Compagnacci, composed of
reckless and dissolute young nobles and their retainers, with Doffo
Spini at their head and the powerful house of Altoviti behind
them, whose primary object was Savonarola's destruction, and
who were ready to resort to desperate measures at the first favor-
able opportunity.*
Such opportunity could not fail to come. Had Savonarola
contented himself with simply denouncing the corruptions of the
Church and the curia he would have been allowed to exhale his
indignation in safety, as St. Birgitta, Chancellor Gerson, Cardinal
d'Ailly, Nicholas de Clemangis, and so many others among the
most venerated ecclesiastics had done. Pope and cardinal Avere
used to reviling, and endured it with the utmost good-nature, so
long as profitable abuses were not interfered with, but Savonarola
had made himself a political personage of importance/ whose in-
fluence at Florence was hostile to the policy of the Borgias. Still,
Alexander VI. treated him with good-natured indifference which
for a while almost savored of contempt. When at last his im-
portance was recognized, an attempt was made to bribe him with
the archbishopric of Florence and the cardinalate, but the offer
was spurned with prophetic indignation — " I want no hat but that
of martyrdom, reddened with my own blood I" It was not till
July 21, 1495, after Charles VIII. had abandoned Italy and left
the Florentines to face single-handed the league of which the
papacy was the head, that any antagonism was manifested tow-
ards him, and then it assumed the form of a friendly summons to
Rome to give an account of the revelations and prophecies which
he had from God. To this he replied, July 31, excusing himself
* Landucci, pp. 110, 112, 122. — Villari, I. 473. — Mgmoires de Commines, Liv.
vin. ch. 19.— Processo Autentico (loc. cit. pp. 524, 541).— Perrens, p. 342.
216 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE CHURCH.
on the ground of severe fever and dysentery ; the republic, more-
over, would not permit him to leave its territories for fear of his
enemies, as his life had already been attempted by both poison and
steel, and he never quitted his convent without a guard ; besides,
the unfinished reforms in the city required his presence. As soon
as possible, however, he would come to Rome, and meanwhile the
pope would find what he wanted in a book now printing, contain-
ing his prophecies on the renovation of the Church and the de-
struction of Italy, a copy of which would be submitted to the holy
father as soon as ready. *
However lightly Savonarola might treat this missive, it was a
warning not to be disregarded, and for a while he ceased preaching.
Suddenly, on September 8, Alexander returned to the charge with
a bull intrusted to the rival Franciscans of Santa Croce, in which he
ordered the reunion of the Tuscan congregation with the Lombard
province ; Savonarola's case was submitted to the Lombard Yicar
general, Sebastiano de Madiis ; Domenico da Pescia and Salvestro
Maruffi were required within eight days to betake themselves to
Bologna, and Savonarola was commanded to cease preaching until
he should present himself in Rome. To this Savonarola replied
September 29, in a labored justification, objecting to Sebastiano as
a prejudiced and suspected judge, and winding up with a request
that the pope should point out any errors in his teaching, which
he would at once revoke, and submit whatever he had spoken or
written to the judgment of the Holy See. Almost immediately
after this the enterprise of Piero de' Medici against Florence ren-
dered it impossible for him to keep silent, and, without awaiting
the papal answer, on October 11 he ascended the pulpit and ve-
hemently exhorted the people to unite in resisting the tyrant.
In spite of this insubordination Alexander was satisfied with Sa-
vonarola's nominal submission, and on October 16 replied, merely
ordering him to preach no more in public or in private until he
could conveniently come to Rome, or a fitting person be sent to
Florence to decide his case ; if he obeyed, then all the papal briefs
were suspended. To Alexander the whole affair was simply one
of politics. The position of Florence under Savonarola's influence
* Guicciardini Lib. in. c. 6. — Burlamacchi, p. 551. — Villari, T. I. pp. civ.-cvii.
-Landucci, p. 106.
SAVONAROLA. 217
was hostile to his designs, but he did not care to push the matter
further, provided he could diminish the Frate's power by silencing
him.*
His voice, however, was too potent a factor in Florentine af-
fairs for his friends in power to consent to his silence. Long and
earnest efforts were made to obtain permission from the pope that
he should resume his exhortations during the coming Lent, and
at length the request was granted. The sermons on Amos which
he then delivered were not of a character to placate the curia, for,
besides lashing its vices with terrible earnestness, he took pains to
indicate that there were limits to the obedience which he would
render to the papal commands. These sermons produced an im-
mense sensation, not only in Florence, but throughout Italy, and
on Easter Sunday, April 3, 1496, Alexander assembled fourteen
Dominican masters of theology, to whom he denounced their auda-
cious comrade as heretical, schismatic, disobedient, and superstitious.
It was admitted that he was responsible for the misfortunes of
Piero de' Medici, and it was resolved, with but one dissentient voice,
that means must be found to silence him.f
Notwithstanding this he continued, without interference, to
preach at intervals until November 2. Even then it is a signifi-
cant tribute to his power that Alexander again had recourse to
indirect means to suppress him. On November 7, 1496, a papal
brief was issued creating a congregation of Rome and Tuscany
and placing it under a Vicar-general who was to serve for two
years, and be ineligible to reappointment except after an interval.
Although the first Vicar-general was Giacomo di Sicilia, a friend
of Savonarola, the measure was ingeniously framed to deprive him
of independence, and he might at any moment be transferred from
Florence to another post. To this Savonarola replied with open
defiance. In a printed "Apologia della Congregazione di San
Marco" he declared that the two hundred and fifty friars of his
convent would resist to the death, in spite of threats and excom-
munication, a measure which would result in the perdition of their
souls. This was a declaration of open war, and on November 26
* Villari, I. 402-7. — Landucci, p. 120. — Diar. Johann. Burchardi (Eccard,
Corp. Hist. II. 2151-9).
t Villari, I. 417, 441-5.— Landucci, pp. 125-9.— Perrens, p. 361.
21S POLITICAL HERESY.— THE CHURCH.
he boldly resumed preaching. The series of sermons on Ezekiel,
which he then commenced and continued through the Lent of
1497, shows clearly that he had abandoned all hope of reconcilia-
tion with the pope. The Church was worse than a beast, it was
an abominable monster which must be purified and renovated by
the servants of God, and in this work excommunication was to be
welcomed. To a great extent, moreover, these sermons were politi-
cal speeches, and indicate how absolutely Savonarola from the
pulpit dictated the municipal affairs of Florence. The city had
been reduced almost to despair in the unequal contest with Pisa,
Milan, Venice, and the papacy, but the close of the year 1496 had
brought some unexpected successes which seemed to justify Sa-
vonarola's exhortations to trust in God, and with the reviving
hopes of the republic his credit was to some extent restored.*
Still Alexander, though his wrath was daily growing, shrank
from an open rupture and trial of strength, and an effort was made
to utilize against Savonarola the traditional antagonism of the
Franciscans. The Observantine convent of San Miniato was made
the centre of operations, and thither were sent the most renowned
preachers of the Order — Domenico da Poza, Michele d' Aquis,
Giovanni Tedesco, Giacopo da Brescia, and Francesco della Puglia.
It is true that when, January 1, 1497, the Piagnoni, strengthened
by recent successes in the field, elected Francesco Yalori as Gon-
faloniero di Giustizia, he endeavored to stop the Franciscans from
preaching, prohibited them from begging bread and wine and
necessaries, and boasted that he would starve them out, and one
of them was absolutely banished from the city, but the others per-
severed, and Savonarola was freely denounced as an impostor from
the pulpit of Santo-Spirito during Lent. Yet this had no effect
upon his followers, and his audiences were larger and more enthu-
siastic than ever. Xo better success awaited a nun of S. Maria
di Casignano, who came to Florence on the same errand.f
The famine was now at its height, and pestilence became
threatening. The latter gave the Signoria, which was now com-
posed of Arrabbiati, an excuse for putting a stop to this pulpit war-
fare, which doubtless menaced the peace of the city, and on May 3
• Villari, I. 489, 492-4, 496, 499, cxlii. ; II. 4-6.
t Processo Autentico, pp. 533-4. — Perrens, pp. 189-90. — Landucci, pp. 144-6.
SAVONAROLA. 219
all preaching after Ascension Day (May 4) was forbidden for the
reason that, with the approach of summer, crowds would facilitate
the dissemination of the plague. That passions were rising beyond
control was shown when, the next day, Savonarola preached his
farewell sermon in the Duomo. The doors had been broken open
in advance, and the pulpit was smeared with filth. The Com-
pagnacci had almost openly made preparations to kill him ; they
gathered there in force, and interrupted the discourse with a tu-
mult, during which the Frate's friends gathered around him with
drawn swords and conveyed him away in safety.*
The affair made an immense sensation throughout Italy, and
the sympathies of the Signoria were shown by the absence of any
attempt to punish the rioters. Encouraged by this evidence of the
weakness of the Piagnoni, on May 13 Alexander sent to the Fran-
ciscans a bull ordering them to publish Savonarola as excommuni-
cate and suspect of heresy, and that no one should hold converse
with him. This, owing to the fears of the papal commissioner
charged with it, was not published till June 18. Before the exist-
ence of the bull was known, on May 22, Savonarola had written to
Alexander an explanatory letter, in which he offered to submit
himself to the judgment of the Church ; but two days after the ex-
communication was published he replied to it with a defence in
which he endeavored to prove that the sentence was invalid, and
on June 25 he had the audacity to address to Alexander a letter of
condolence on the murder of his son, the Duke of Gandia. Fort-
unately for him another revulsion in municipal politics restored
his friends to power on July 1, the elections till the end of the year
continued favorable, and he did not cease to receive and administer
the sacraments, though, under the previous orders of the Signoria,
there was no preaching. It must be borne in mind that at this
period there was a spirit of insubordination abroad which regarded
the papal censures with slender respect. We have seen above
(Yol. II. p. 137) that in 1502 the whole clergy of France, acting
under a decision of the University of Paris, openly defied an ex-
communication launched at them by Alexander VI. It was the
same now in Florence. How little the Piagnoni recked of the ex-
communication is seen by a petition presented September 17 to
* Landucci, p. 148,— Villari, II. 18-25.
220 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE CHURCH
the Signoria, by the children of Florence, asking that their beloved
Frate be allowed to resume preaching, and by a sermon delivered
in his defence, October 1, by a Carmelite who declared that in a vis-
ion God had told him that Savonarola was a holy man, and that all
his opponents would have their tongues torn out and be cast to the
dogs. This was flat rebellion against the Holy See, but the only
punishment inflicted on the Carmelite by the episcopal officials was
a prohibition of further preaching. Meanwhile the Signoria had
made earnest but vain attempts to have the excommunication re-
moved, and Savonarola had indignantly refused an offer of the
Cardinal of Siena (afterwards Pius III.) to have it withdrawn on
the payment of five thousand scudi to a creditor of his. Yet. in
spite of this disregard of the papal censures, Savonarola considered
himself as still an obedient son of the Church. He employed the
enforced leisure of this summer in writing the Trionfo delta Croce,
in which he proved that the papacy is supreme, and that whoever
separates himself from the unity and doctrine of Rome separates
himself from Christ.*
January, 1498, saw the introduction of a Signoria composed of
his zealous partisans, who were not content that a voice so potent
should be hushed. It was an ancient custom that thev should go
in a body and make oblations at the Duomo on Epiphany, which
was the anniversary of the Church, and on that day citizens of all
parties were astounded at seeing the still excommunicated Savon-
arola as the celebrant, and the officials humbly kiss his hand. Xot
content with this act of rebellion, it was arranged that he should
recommence preaching. A new Signoria was to be elected for
March, the people were becoming divided in their allegiance to
him. and his eloquence was held to be indispensable for his own
safety and for the continuance in power of the Piagnoni. Ac-
cordingly, on February 11 he again appeared in the Duomo, where
the old benches and scaffolds had been replaced to accommodate
the crowd. Yet many of the more timid Piagnoni abstained from
listening to an excommunicate : whether just or unjust, they ar-
gued, the sentence of the Church was to be feared, f
* Yillari, II. 25-8, 35-6,79; App. xxxix. — Processo Autentico, p. 535. — Lan-
ducci, pp. 152-3, 157.
t Landucci, pp. 161-2.— Machiavelli, Framinenti istorici (Opere Ed. 1782, II.
58).
SAVONAROLA. 221
In the sermons on Exodus preached during this Lent — the last
which he had the opportunity of uttering — Savonarola was more
violent than ever. His position was such that he could only justify
himself by proving that the papal anathema was worthless, and this
he did in terms which excited the liveliest indignation in Rome.
A brief was despatched to the Signoria, February 26, commanding
them, under pain of interdict, to send Savonarola as a prisoner to
Rome. This received no attention, but at the same time another
letter was sent to the canons of the Duomo ordering them to close
their church to him, and March 1 he appeared there to say that
he would preach at San Marco, whither the crowded audience fol-
lowed him. His fate, however, was sealed the same day by the
advent to power of a government composed of a majority of Ar-
rabbiati, with one of his bitterest enemies, Pier Popoleschi, at its
head as Gonfaloniero di Giustizia. Yet he was too powerful with
the people to be openly attacked, and occasion for his ruin had
to be awaited.*
The first act of the new Signoria was an appeal to the pope,
March 4, excusing themselves for not obeying his orders and ask-
ing for clemency towards Savonarola, whose labors had been so
fruitful, and whom the people of Florence believed to be more
than man. Possibly this may have been insidiously intended to
kindle afresh the papal anger ; at all events, Alexander's reply
shows that he recognized fully the advantage of the situation.
Savonarola is "that miserable worm" who in a sermon recently
printed had adjured God to deliver him to hell if he should apply
for absolution. The pope will waste no more time in letters ; he
wants no more words from them, but acts. They must either send
their monstrous idol to Rome, or segregate him from all human
society, if they wish to escape the interdict which will last until
they submit. Yet Savonarola is not to be perpetually silenced,
but, after due humiliation, his mouth shall be again opened.f
This reached Florence March 13 and excited a violent discus-
sion. We have seen that an interdict inflicted by the pope might
* Landucci, p. 164.— Perrens, p. 231.— Villari, II. App. lxvi.
+ Perrens, pp. 232-5, 365-72. Cf. Villari, II. 115.
The obnoxious appeal to God had really been made by Savonarola in his ser-
mon of February 11 (Villari, II. 88).
222 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE CHURCH.
be not merely a deprivation of spiritual privileges, but that it might
comprehend segregation from the outside world and seizure of
person and property wherever found, which was ruin to a commer-
cial community. The merchants and bankers of Florence received
%J
from their Roman correspondents the most alarming accounts of
the papal wrath and of his intention to expose their property to
pillage. Fear took possession of the city, as rumors spread from
day to day that the dreaded interdict had been proclaimed. It
shows the immense influence still wielded by Savonarola that,
after earnest discussions and various devices, the Signoria could
only bring itself, March IT, to send to him five citizens at night to
beg him to suspend preaching for the time. He had promised that,
while he would not obey the pope, he would respect the wishes of
the civil power, but when this request reached him he replied that
he must first seek the will of Him who had ordered him to preach.
The next day, from the pulpit of San Marco, he gave his answer —
" Listen, for this is what the Lord saith : In asking this Frate to
give up preaching it is to Me that the request is made, and not to
him, for it is I who preach ; it is I who grant the request and who
do not grant it. The Lord assents as regards the preaching, but
not as regards your salvation." *
It was impossible to yield more awkwardly or in a manner
more convincing of self-deception, and Savonarola's enemies grew
correspondingly bold. The Franciscans thundered triumphantly
from the pulpits at their command ; the disorderly elements,
wearied with the rule of righteousness, commenced to agitate for
the license which they con Id see was soon to be theirs. Profane
scoffers commenced to ridicule the Frate openly in the streets, and
within a week placards were posted on the walls urging the burn-
ing of the palaces of Francesco Yalori and Paolo Antonio Sode-
rini, two of his leading supporters. The agents of the Duke of
Milan were not far wrong when they exultingly wrote to him pre-
dicting the speedy downfall of the Frate, by fair means or foul.f
Just at this juncture there came to light a desperate expedient
to which Savonarola had recourse. After giving Alexander fair
warning, March 13, to look to his safety, for there could no longer
* Perrens, pp. 237, 238.— Landucci, pp. 164-66.
f Landucci, p. 166. — Villari, U. App. pp. lviii.-lxii.
SAVONAROLA. 223
be truce between them, Savonarola appealed to the sovereigns of
Christendom, in letters purporting to be written under the direct
command of God and in his name, calling upon the monarchs to
convoke a general council for the reformation of the Church. It
was diseased, from the highest to the lowest, and on account of its
intolerable stench God had not permitted it to have a lawful head.
Alexander VI. was not pope and was not eligible to the papacy,
not only by reason of the simony through which he had bought
the tiara, and the wickedness which, when exposed, would excite
universal execration, but also because he was not a Christian, and
not even a believer in God. All this Savonarola offered to prove by
evidence and by miracles which God would execute to convince the
most sceptical. This portentous epistle, with trifling variants, was
to be addressed to the Kings of France, Spain, England, and Hun-
gary, and to the emperor. A preliminary missive from Domenico
Mazzinghi to Giovanni Guasconi, Florentine Ambassador in France,
happened to be intercepted by the Duke of Milan, who was hostile
to Savonarola, and who promptly forwarded it to the pope.*
Alexander's wrath can easily be conceived. It was not so
much the personal accusations, which he was ready to dismiss with
cynical indifference, as the effort to bring about the convocation of
a council which, since those of Constance and Basle, had ever been
the cry of the reformer and the terror of the papacy. In the ex-
isting discontent of Christendom it was an ever-present danger.
So recently as 1482 the half-crazy Andreas, Archbishop of Krain,
had set all Europe in an uproar by convoking from Basle a council
on his own responsibility, and defying for six months, under the
protection of the magistrates, the efforts of Sixtus IY. and the
anathemas of the inquisitor, Henry Institoris, until Frederic III.,
after balancing awhile, had him thrown into jail. In the same year,
1482, Ferdinand and Isabella, by the threat of calling a council,
brought Sixtus to renounce the claim of filling the sees of Spain
with his own creatures. In 1495 a rumor was current that the
emperor was about to cite the pope to a council to be held in
* Villari, II. 129, 132-5; App. pp. lxviii -lxxi., clxxi. — Baluz. et Mansi I.
584-5.— Perrens. pp. 373-5.— Burlamacchi, p. 551.— In his confession of May 21,
Savonarola stated that the idea of the council had only suggested itself to him
three months previously (Villari, II. App. cxcii.).
22± POLITICAL HERESY.— THE CHURCH.
Florence. Some vears earlier the rebellious Cardinal Giuliano
della Kovere, who had fled to France, persistently urged Charles
VIII. to assemble a general council ; in 14:97 Charles submitted
the question to the University of Paris, and the University pro-
nounced in its favor. Wild as was Savonarola's notion that he
could, single-handed, stimulate the princes to such action, it was,
nevertheless, a dart aimed at the mortal spot of the papacy, and
the combat thereafter was one in which no quarter could be given.*
The end, in fact, was inevitable, but it came sooner and more
dramatically than the shrewdest observer could have anticipated.
It is impossible, amid the conflicting statements of friends and
foes, to determine with positiveness the successive steps leading to
the strange Sperimento del Fuoco which was the proximate occa-
sion of the catastrophe, but it probably occurred in this wise :
Fra Girolamo being silenced, Domenico da Pescia took his place.
Matters were clearly growing desperate, and in his indiscreet zeal
Domenico offered to prove the truth of his master's cause by
throwing himself from the roof of the Palazzo de' Signori, by cast-
ing himself into the river, or by entering fire. Probably this was
only a rhetorical flourish without settled purpose, but the Francis-
can, Francesco della Puglia, who was preaching with much effect
at the Church of Santa-Croce, took it up and offered to share the
ordeal with Fra Girolamo. The latter, however, refused to under-
take it unless a papal legate and ambassadors from all Christian
princes could be present, so that it might be made the commence-
ment of a general reform in the Church. Fra Domenico then
accepted the challenge, and on March 27 or 28 he caused to be
affixed to the portal of Santa-Croce a paper in which he offered to
prove, by argument or miracle, these propositions : I. The Church
* Landucci, p. 113. — Chron. Glassberger ann. 1482. — Raynald. ann. 1492, No.
25. — Pulgar, Cronica de los Reyes Catolicos, ii. civ. — Comba, La Riforma in
Italia, I. 491.— Nardi, Lib. n. (p. 79).
The contemporary Glassberger says of Andreas of Krain's attempt, " Nisi
enim auctoritas imperatoris intervenisset maximum in ecclesia schisma subortum
fuisset. Omnes enim aeinuli domini papae ad domini imperatoris consensum
respiciebant pro concilio celebrando." A year's imprisonment in chains ex-
hausted the resolution of Andreas, who executed a solemn recantation of his in-
vectives against the Holy See. This was sent with a petition for pardon to
Sixtus IV., who granted it, but before the return of the messengers the unhappy
reformer hanged himself in his cell (ubi sup. ann. 1483).
SAVONAROLA. 225
of God requires renovation ; II. The Church is to be scourged ;
III. The Church will be renovated ; IV. After chastisement Flor
ence will be renovated and will prosper; V. The infidel will be
converted ; VI. The excommunication of Fra Girolamo is void ;
VII. There is no sin in not observing the excommunication. Fra
Francesco reasonably enough said that most of these propositions
were incapable of argument, but, as a demonstration was desired,
he would enter fire with Fra Domenico, although he fully expected
to be burned ; still, he was willing to make the sacrifice in order
to liberate the Florentines from their false idol.*
Passions were fierce on both sides, and eager partisans kept
the city in an uproar. To prevent an outbreak the Signoria sent
for both disputants and caused them to enter into a written agree-
ment, March 30, to undergo this strange trial. Three hundred
years earlier it would have seemed reasonable enough, but the
Council of Lateran, in 1215, had reprobated ordeals of all kinds,
and they had been definitely marked with the ban of the Church.
When it came to the point Fra Francesco said that he had no
quarrel with Domenico ; that if Savonarola would undergo the
trial, he was ready to share it, but with any one else he would only
produce a champion — and one was readily found in the person of
Fra Giuliano Rondinelh, a noble Florentine of the Order. On the
other side, all the friars of San Marco, nearly three hundred in
number, signed the agreement pledging to submit themselves to
the ordeal, and Savonarola declared that in such a cause any one
could do so without risk. So great was the enthusiasm that when,
on the day before the trial, he preached on the subject in San-
Marco, all the audience rose in mass, and offered to take Domeni-
co's place in vindicating the truth. The conditions prescribed by
the Signoria were, that if the Dominican champion perished,
whether alone or with his rival, Savonarola should leave the city
until officially recalled ; if the Franciscan alone succumbed, then
Fra Francesco should do likewise ; and the same was decreed for
either side that should decline the ordeal at the last moment.f
* Burlamacchi, p. 559. — Landucci, pp. 166-7. — Processo Autentico, pp. 535-7.
— Villari, II. App. lxxi. sqq.
t Landucci, pp. 167-8.— Processo Autentico, pp. 536-8.— Villari, II. App.
xci.-xciii.
III.— 15
226 POLITICAL HERESY.-THE CHURCH.
The Signoria appointed ten citizens to conduct the trial, and
fixed it for April 6, but postponed it for a day in hopes of receiv-
ing from the pope a negative answer to an application for per-
mission— a refusal which came, but came too late, possibly delayed
on purpose. On April T, accordingly, the preparations were com-
pleted. In the Piazza de' Signori a huge pile of dry wood was
built the height of a man's eyes, with a central gangway through
which the champions were to pass. It was plentifully supplied
with gunpowder, oil, sulphur, and spirits, to insure the rapid spread
of the flames, and when lighted at one end the contestants were
•to enter at the other, which was to be set on fire behind them, so
as to cut off all retreat. An immense mass of earnest spectators
filled the piazza, and every window and house-top was crowded.
These were mostly partisans of Savonarola, and the Franciscans
were cowed until cheered by the arrival of the Compagnacci, the
young nobles fully armed on the'r war-horses, and each accom-
panied b}r eight or ten retainers — some five hundred in all, with
Doffo Spini at their head.*
First came on the scene the Franciscans, anxious and terrified.
Then marched in procession the Dominicans, about two hundred
in number, chanting psalms. Both parties went before the Sig-
noria, when the Franciscans, professing fear of magic arts, de-
manded that Domenico should change his garments. Although
this was promptly acceded to, and both champions were clothed
anew, considerable time was consumed in the details. The Domini-
cans claimed that Domenico should be allowed to carry a crucifix in
his right hand and a consecrated wafer in his left. An objection
being made to the crucifix he agreed to abandon it, but was un-
moved by the cry of horror with which the proposition as to the
host was received. Savonarola was firm. It had been revealed
to Fra Salvestro that the sacrament was indispensable, and the
matter was hotly disputed until the shades of evening fell, when
the Signoria announced that the ordeal was abandoned, and the
Franciscans withdrew, followed by the Dominicans. The crowd
which had patiently waited through torrents of rain, and a storm
in which the air seemed filled with howling demons, were enraged
* Perrens, pp. 379-81. — Burlamacchi, pp. 560, 562. — Landucci, p. 163. — Pro-
cesso Autentico, pp. 540-1.
SAVONAROLA. 227
at the loss of the promised spectacle, and a heavy armed escort
was necessary to convey the Dominicans in safety back to San
Marco. Had the matter been one with which reason had any-
thing to do, we might perhaps wonder that it was regarded as a
triumph for the Franciscans ; but Savonarola had so confidently
promised a miracle, and had been so implicitly believed by his
followers, that they accepted the drawn battle as a defeat, and as
a confession that he could not rely on the interposition of God.
Their faith in their prophet was shaken, while the exultant Com-
pagnacci lavished abuse on him, and they had not a word to utter
in his defence.*
His enemies were prompt in following up their advantage.
The next day was Palm Sunday. The streets were full of tri-
umphant Arrabbiati, and such Piagnoni as showed themselves
were pursued with jeers and pelted with stones. At vespers, the
Dominican Mariano de' Ughi attempted to preach in the Duomo,
which was crowded, but the Compagnacci were there in force, in- ,
terrupted the sermon, ordered the audience to disperse, and those
who resisted were assailed and wounded. Then arose the cry,
" To San Marco !" and the crowd hurried thither. Already the
doors of the Dominican church had been surrounded by boys
whose cries disturbed the service within, and who, when ordered
to be silent, had replied with showers of stones which compelled
the entrance to be closed. As the crowd surged around, the wor-
shippers were glad to escape with their lives through the cloisters.
Francesco Yalori and Paolo Antonio Soderini were there in con-
sultation with Savonarola. Soderini made good his exit from the
city ; Yalori was seized while skirting the walls, and carried in
front of his palace, which had already been attacked by the Com-
pagnacci. Before his eyes, his wife, who was pleading with the
assailants from a window, was slain with a missile, one of his
children and a female servant were wounded, and the palace was
sacked and burned, after which he was struck from behind raid
killed by his enemies of the families Tornabuoni and Kidolfi.
* Landucci, pp. 168-9.— Processo Autentico, p. 542.— Burlamacchi, p. 563.—
Villari, II. App. pp. lxxv.-lxxx., lxxxiii.-xc— Guicciardini, Lib. in. c. 6.
The good Florentines did not fail to point out that the sudden death of
Charles VIII., on this same April 7, was a visitation upon hirn for having aban-
doned Savonarola and the republic. — Nardi, Lib. n. p. 80.
228 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE CHURCH.
Two other houses of Savonarola's partisans were likewise pillaged
and burned.*
In the midst of the uproar there came forth successive procla-
mations from the Signoria ordering Savonarola to quit the Flor-
entine territories within twelve hours, and all laymen to leave the
church of San Marco within one hour. Although these were fol-
lowed by others threatening death to any one entering the church,
they virtually legalized the riot, showing what had doubtless been
the secret springs that set it in motion. The assault on San Marco
then became a regular siege. Matters had for some time looked
so threatening that during the past fortnight the friars had been
secretly providing themselves with arms. These they and their
friends used gallantly, even against the express commands of
Savonarola, and a melee occurred in which more than a hundred
on both sides were killed and wounded. At last the Signoria
sent guards to capture Savonarola and his principal aids, Do-
menico and Salvestro, with a pledge that no harm should be done
to them. Resistance ceased ; the two former were found in the
library, but Salvestro had hidden himself, and was not captured
till the next day. The prisoners were ironed hand and foot and
carried through the streets, where their guards could not protect
them from kicks and buffets by the raging mob.f
The next day there was comparative quiet. The revolution in
which the aristocracy had allied itself with the dangerous classes
was complete. The Piagnoni were thoroughly cowed. Oppro-
brious epithets were freely lavished on Savonarola by the victors,
and any one daring to utter a word in his defence would have
been slain on the spot. To render the triumph permanent, how-
ever, it was necessary first to discredit him utterly with the peo-
ple and then to despatch him. Xo time was lost in preparing to
give a judicial appearance to the foregone conclusion. During
the dav a tribunal of seventeen members selected from among:
his special enemies, such as Doffo Spini, was nominated, which
set promptly to work on April 10, although its formal commis-
sion, including power to use torture, was not made out until the
* Landucci, p. 170. — Processo Auteutico, pp. 534, 543. — Burlamacchi, p. 564.
+ Landucci, p. 171. — Processo Autentico, pp. 544. 549. — Burlamacchi, p. 564.
— Nardi, Lib. it. p. 78. — Villain, II. 173-77; App. pp. xciv.. ccxxv., ccxxxiii.
SAVONAROLA. 229
11th. Papal authority to disregard the clerical immunity of the
prisoners was applied for, but the proceedings were not delayed
by waiting for the answer, which, of course, was favorable, and
two papal commissioners were adjoined to the tribunal. Savona-
rola and his companions, still ironed hand and foot, were carried
to the Bargello. The official account states that he was first in-
terrogated kindly, but as he would not confess he was threatened
with torture, and this proving ineffectual he was subjected to
three and a half tratti di fune. This was a customary form of
torture, known as the strappado, which consisted in tying the
prisoner's hands behind his back, then hoisting him by a rope fast-
ened to his wrists, letting him drop from a height and arresting
him with a jerk before his feet reached the floor. Sometimes
heavy weights were attached to the feet to render the operation
more severe. Officially it is stated that this first application was
sufficient to lead him to confess freely, but the general belief at
the time was that it was repeated with extreme severity.*
Be this as it may, Savonarola's nervous organization was too
sensitive for him to endure agony which he knew would be in-
definitely prolonged by those determined to effect a predestined
result. He entreated to be released from the torture and promised
to reveal everything. His examination lasted until April 18, but
* Landucci, pp. 171-2. — Villari, II. 178 ; App. p. clxv. — Processo Autentico,
pp. 550-1.
Violi (Villari, II. App. cxvi.-vii.) says that the torture was repeatedly applied
— on one evening no less than fourteen times from the pulley to the floor, and
that his arms were so injured that he was unable to feed himself; but this must
be exaggerated in view of the pi< us treatises which he wrote while in prison.
Burlamacchi says that he was tortured repeatedly both with cord and fire (pp.
566, 568). Burchard, the papal prothonotary, states that he was tortured seven
times, and Burchard was likely to know and not likely to exaggerate (Burch.
Diar. ap. Preuves des Memoires de Commines, Bruxelles, 1706, p. 424). The ex-
pression of Commines, who was well-informed, is " le gesnerent a merveilles"
(Memoires, Lib. viii. ch. 19). But the most emphatic evidence is that of the Sig-
noria, who, in answer to the reproaches of Alexander at their tardiness, declare
that they had to do with a man of great endurance ; they had assiduously tort-
ured him for many days with slender results, which they would suppress until
they could force him to reveal all his secrets— " multa et assidua quaestione, mul-
tis diebus, per vim vix pauca extorsimus, quae nunc celare animus erat donee
omnia nobis paterent sui animi involucra^ (Villari, II. 197).
230 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE CHURCH.
even in his complying frame of mind the resultant confession re-
quired to be manipulated before it could be made public. For
this infamous piece of work a fitting instrument was at hand.
Ser Ceccone was an old partisan of the Medici whose life had
been saved by Savonarola's secretly giving him refuge in San
Marco, and who now repaid the benefit by sacrificing his bene-
factor. As a notary he was familiar with such work, and un-
der his skilful hands the incoherent answers of Savonarola were
moulded into a narrative which is the most abject of self -accusa-
tions and most compromising to all his friends.*
He is made to represent himself as being from the first a con-
scious impostor, whose sole object was to gain power by deceiving
the people. If his project of convoking a council had resulted in
his being chosen pope he would not have refused the position, but
if not he would at all events have become the foremost man in
the world. For his own purposes he had arrayed the citizens
against each other and caused a rupture between the city and the
Holy See, striving to erect a government on the Venetian model,
with Francesco Yalori as perpetual doge. The animus of the
trial is clearly revealed in the scant attention paid to his spiritual
aberrations, which were the sole offences for which he could be
convicted, and the immense detail devoted to his political activity,
and to his relations with all obnoxious citizens whom it was de-
sired to involve in his ruin. Had there been any pretence of ob-
serving ordinary judicial forms, the completeness with which he
was represented as abasing himself would have overreached its
purpose. In forcing him to confess that he was no prophet, and
that he had always secretly believed the papal excommunication
to be valid, he was relieved from the charge of persistent heresy,
and he could legally be only sentenced to penance ; but, as there
* Landucci, p. 172. — Processo Autentico, p. 550. — Perrens, pp. 267-8. — Bur-
lamacchi, pp. 566-7. — Villari, II. 188, 193; App. cxviii.-xxi.
It is part of the Savonarola legend that Savonarola threatened Ser Ceccone
with death within a year if he did not remove certain interpolations from the
confession, and that the prediction was verified, Ceccone dying within the time,
unhouselled, and refusing in despair the consolations of religion (Burlamacchi,
p. 575. — Violi op. Villari, II. App. cxxvii.).
Ceccone performed the same office for the confession of Fra Domenico (Villari,
II. App. Doc. xxvir.).
SAVONAROLA.
231
was no intention of being restricted to legal rules, the first object
was to discredit him with the people, after which he could be
judicially murdered with impunity.*
The object was thoroughly attained. On April 19, in the great
hall of the council, the confession was publicly read in the pres-
ence of all who might see fit to attend. The effect produced is
well described by the honest Luca Landucci, who had been an
earnest and devout, though timid, follower of Fra Girolamo, and
who now grieved bitterly at the disappearance of his illusions, and
at the shattering of the gorgeous day-dreams in which the dis-
ciples had nursed themselves. Deep was his anguish as he lis-
tened to the confession of one " whom we believed to be a prophet
and who now confessed that he was no prophet, and that what he
preached was not revealed to him by God. I was stupefied and
my very soul was filled with grief to see the destruction of such
an edifice, which crumbled because it was founded on a lie. I had
expected to see Florence a new Jerusalem, whence should issue
the laws and the splendor and the example of the holy life ; to
see the renovation of the Church, the conversion of the infidel, and
the rejoicing of the good. I found the reverse of all this, and I
swallowed the dose" — a natural enough metaphor, seeing that
Landucci was an apothecary, f
Yet even with this the Signoria was not satisfied. On April
21 a new trial was ordered ; Savonarola was tortured again, and
further avowals of his political action were wrung from him,;j:
while a general arrest was made of those who were compromised
by his confessions, and those of Domenico and Salvestro, creating a
terror so widespread that large numbers of his followers fled from
the city. On the 27th the prisoners were taken to the Bargello
and so tortured that during the whole of the afternoon their
shrieks were heard by the passers-by, but nothing was wrung
* Processo Autentico, pp. 551-64, 567. — Villari, II. App. cxlvii. sqq.
Violi states that the confession as interpolated by Ceccone was printed and
circulated by the Signoria as a justification of their action, but that it proved so
unsatisfactory to the public that in a few days all copies were ordered by proc-
lamation to be surrendered (Villari, II. App. p. cxiv.).
t Landucci, p. 173. — Burlamacchi, p. 567.
I This confession was never made public. Villari, who discovered the MS.,
has printed it, App. p. clxxv.
232 POLITICAL HERESY.-THE CHURCH.
from them to incriminate Savonarola. The officials in power had
but a short time for action, as their term of office ended with the
month, although by arbitrary and illegal devices they secured suc-
cessors of their own party. Their last official act, on the 30th,
was the exile of ten of the accused citizens, and the imposition on
twenty-three of various fines, amounting in all to twelve thousand
florins.*
The new government which came in power May 1 at once dis-
charged the imprisoned citizens, but kept Savonarola and his com-
panions. These, as Dominicans, were not justiciable by the civil
power, but the Signoria immediately applied to Alexander for
authority to condemn and execute them. He refused, and ordered
them to be delivered to him for judgment, as he had already done
when the news reached him of Savonarola's capture. To this the
republic demurred, doubtless for the reason privately alleged to
the ambassador, that Savonarola was privy to too many state
secrets to be intrusted to the Roman curia ; but it suggested that
the pope might send commissioners to Florence to conduct the
proceedings in his name. To this he assented. In a brief of May
11 the Bishop of Yaison, the suffragan of the Archbishop of Flor-
ence, is instructed to degrade the culprits from holy orders, at the
requisition of the commissioners who had been empowered to con-
duct the examination and trial to final sentence. In the selection
of these commissioners the Inquisition does not appear. Even
had it not fallen too low in popular estimation to be intrusted
with an affair of so much moment, in Tuscany it was Franciscan,
and to have given special authority to the existing inquisitor,
Fra Francesco da Montalcino, would have been injudicious in view
of the part taken by the Franciscans in the downfall of Savonarola.
Alexander showed his customary shrewdness in selecting for the
miserable work the Dominican general, Giovacchino Torriani,
who bore the reputation of a kind-hearted and humane man. He
was but a stalking-horse, however, for the real actor was his asso-
ciate, Francesco Eomolino, a clerk of Lerida, whose zeal in the
infamous business was rewarded with the cardinalate and arch-
bishopric of Palermo. After all, their duties were only ministerial
* Landucci, p. 174. — Processo Autentico, p. 563. — Villari, H. 210, 217. — Nardi,
Lib. ii. p. 79.
SAVONAROLA. 233
and not judicial, for the matter had been prejudged at Kome.
Roinolino openly boasted, " We shall have a fine bonfire, for I
bring" the sentence with me." *
The commissioners reached Florence May 19, and lost no time
in accomplishing their object. The only result of the papal inter-
vention was to subject the victims to a surplusage of agony and
shame. For form's sake, the papal judges could not accept the
proceedings already had, but must inflict on Savonarola a third
trial. Brought before Romolino on the 20th, he retracted his con-
fession as extorted by torture, and asserted that he was an envoy
of God. Under the inquisitorial formulas this retraction of con-
fession rendered him a relapsed heretic, who could be burned with-
out further ceremony, but his judges wanted to obtain information
desired by Alexander, and again the sufferer was repeatedly sub-
jected to the strappado, when he withdrew his retraction. Special
inquiries were directed to ascertain whether the Cardinal of Naples
had been privy to the design of convoking a general council, and
under the stress of reiterated torture Savonarola was brought to
admit this on the 21st, but on the 22d he withdrew the assertion,
and the whole confession, although manipulated by the skilful
hand of Ser Ceccone, was so nearly a repetition of the previous
one that it was never given to the public. This mattered little,
however, for the whole proceedings were a barefaced mockery of
justice. From some oversight Domenico da Pescia's name had not
been included in the papal commission. He was an individual
of no personal importance, but some zealous Florentine warned
Romolino that there might be danger in sparing him, when the
commissioner carelessly replied " Afrataccio more or less makes
no difference," and his name was added to the sentence. He was
an impenitent heretic, for with heroic firmness he had borne the
most excruciating torture without retracting his faith in his be-
loved prophet.f
* Landucci, p. 174.— Nardi, Lib. n. p. 79.— Wadding, ann. 1496, No. 7.—
Perrens, p. 399.— Processo Autentico, p. 522.— Burlamacchi, p. 568.— Brev. Hist.
Ord. Prsedicat. (Martene Ampl. Coll. VI. 393).
t Landucci, p. 176.— Nardi, Lib. n. pp. 80-1.— Burlamacchi, p. 568.— Violi
(Villari, II. App. cxxv.).— Villari, II. 206-8, 229-33; App. clxxxiv., cxciv., cxcvii.
There was one peculiarity in this examination before Romolino which I have
not seen recorded elsewhere. During the interrogatory of May 21 Savonarola
234 POLITICAL HERESY,— THE CHURCH.
The accused were at least spared the torment of suspense. On
the 2M judgment was pronounced. They were condemned as
heretics and schismatics, rebels from the Church, sowers of tares
and revealers of confessions, and were sentenced to be abandoned
to the secular arm. To justify relaxation, it was requisite that
the culprit should be a relapsed or a defiant heretic, and Savona-
rola was not regarded as coming under either category. He had
always declared his readiness to retract anything which Home
might define as erroneous. He had confessed all that had been
required of him, nor was his retraction when removed from tort-
ure treated as a relapse, for he and his companions were admitted
to communion before execution, without undergoing the ceremony
of abjuration, which shows that they were not considered as
heretics, nor cut off from the Church. In fact, as though to com-
plete the irregularity of the whole transaction, Savonarola himself
was allowed to act as the celebrant, and to perform the sacred
mysteries on the morning of the execution. All this went for
nothing, however, when a Borgia was eager for revenge. On the
previous evening a great pile had been built in the piazza. The
next morning, May 23, the ceremony of degradation from holy
orders was performed in public, after which the convicts were
handed over to the secular magistrates. Was it hypocrisy or re-
morse that led Romolino at this moment to give to his victims, in
the name of Alexander, plenary indulgence of their sins, thus re-
storing them to a state of primal innocence ? Irregular as the
whole affair had been, it was rendered still more so by the Signoria,
which modified the customary penalty to hanging before the burn-
ing, and the three martyrs endured their fate in silence.*
The utmost care was taken that the bodies should be utterly
consumed, after which every fragment of ashes was scrupulously
gathered up and thrown into the Arno, in order to prevent the
preservation of relics. Yet, at the risk of their lives, some earnest
disciples secretly managed to secure a few floating coals, as well
was subjected to fresh torture as a preliminary to asking his confirmation of the
statements just made under repeated tortures (Villari, II. App. cxcvi.).
* Landucci, pp. 176-7. — Processo Autentico, p. 546. — Villari, II. 239 ; App.
cxcviii. — Cantu, Eretici dltalia, I. 229. — Burlamacchi, pp. 569-70. — Nardi, Lib.
ii. p. 82.
SAVONAROLA. 235
as some fragments of garments, which were treasured and vener-
ated even to recent times. Though many of the believers, like
honest Landucci, were disillusioned, many were persistent in the
faith, and for a long while lived in the daily expectation of Savon-
arola's advent, like a new Messiah, to work out the renovation of
Christianity and the conversion of the infidel — the realization of
the splendid promises with which he had beguiled himself and
them. So profound and lasting was the impression made by his
terrible fate that for more than two centuries, until 1703, the place
of execution was secretly strewed with flowers on the night of the
anniversary, May 23.*
The papal commissioners reaped a harvest by summoning to
Rome the followers of Savonarola, and then speculating on their
fears by selling them exemptions. Florence itself was not long
in realizing the strength of the reaction against the puritanic
methods which Savonarola had enforced. The streets again be-
came filled with reckless desperadoes, quarrels and murders were
frequent, gambling was unchecked, and license reigned supreme.
Nardi tells us that it seemed as if decency and virtue had been
prohibited by law, and the common remark was, that since the
coming of Mahomet no such scandal had been inflicted upon the
Church of God. As Landucci says, it seemed as if hell had broken
loose. As though in very wantonness to show the Church what
were the allies whom it had sought in the effort to crush unwel-
come reform, on the following Christmas eve a horse was brought
into the Duomo, and deliberately tortured to death, goats were
let loose in San Marco, and in all the churches assafcetida was
placed in the censers ; nor does it seem that any punishment was
visited upon the perpetrators of these public sacrileges. The
Church had used the sceptics to gain her ends, and could not com-
plain of the manner in which they repaid her for her assistance in
the unholv alliance. f
* Landucci, p. 178. — Perrens, p. 281. — Processo Autentico, p. 547. — Nardi,
Lib. ii. p. 82.— Villari, II. 251.
Burlarnacchi's relation (pp. 570-1) of the manner in which an arm, a hand,
and the heart of Savonarola were preserved for the veneration of the faithful,
has the evident appearance of a legend to justify the authenticity of the relics.
t Nardi, Lib. n. pp. 82-3. — Landucci, pp. 190-1.
236 POLITICAL HERESY. — THE CHURCH.
Savonarola had built his house upon the sand, and was. swept
away by the waters. Yet, in spite of his execution as a heretic,
the Church has tacitly confessed its own crime by admitting that
he was no heretic, but rather a saint, and the most convenient
evasion of responsibility was devoutly to refer the whole matter,
as Luke Wadding does, to the mysterious judgment of God. Even
Torriani and Romolino, after burning him, when they ordered,
May 27, under pain of excommunication, all his writings to be de-
livered up to them for examination, were unable to discover any
heretical opinions, and were obliged to return them without eras-
ures. Perhaps it might have been as well to do this before con-
demning him. Paul III. declared that he would hold as a heretic
any one who should assail the memory of Fra Girolamo; and
Paul IV. had his works rigorously examined by a special congre-
gation, which declared that they contained no heresy. Fifteen of
his sermons, denunciatory of ecclesiastical abuses, and his treatise
De Yeritate Prophetica, were placed upon the index as unfitted
for general reading, donee corrigantur, but not as heretical.
Benedict XI Y., in his great work, De Servorurn Dei Beatijicatione,
includes Savonarola's name in a list of the saints and men illustri-
ous for sanctity. Images of him graced with the nimbus of sanc-
tity were allowed to be publicly sold, and St. Filippo Xeri kept
one of these constantly by him. St. Francesco di Paola held him
to be a saint. St. Catarina Ricci used to invoke him as a saint,
and considered his suffrage peculiarly efficacious ; when she was
canonized, her action with regard to this was brought before the
consistory, and was thoroughly discussed. Prospero Lambertini,
afterwards Benedict XIV., was the Promoter Jidei, and investi-
gated the matter carefully, coming to the conclusion that this in
no degree detracted from the merits of St. CatariDa. Benedict
XIII. also examined the case thoroughly, and, dreading a renewal
of the old controversy as to the justice of Savonarola's sentence,
ordered the discussion to cease and the proceedings to continue
without reference to it, which was a virtual decision in favor of
the martyr's saintliness. In S. Maria Novella and S. Marco he is
pictured as a saint, and in the frescos of the Vatican Raphael in-
cluded him among the doctors of the Church. The Dominicans
long cherished his memory, and were greatly disposed to regard
him as a genuine prophet and uncanonized saint. When Clement
SAVONAROLA. 237
VIII., in 1598, hoped to acquire Ferrara, he is said to have made
a vow that if successful he would canonize Savonarola, and the
hopes of the Dominicans grew so sanguine that they composed a
litany for him in advance. In fact, in many of the Dominican
convents of Italy during the sixteenth century, on the anniversary
of his execution an office was sung to him as to a martyr. His
marvellous career thus furnishes the exact antithesis of that of his
Ferrarese compatriot, Armanno Pongilupo — the one was vener-
ated as a saint and then burned as a heretic, the other was burned
as a heretic and then venerated as a saint.*
# Wadding, ann. 1498, No. 23.— Landucci, p. 178.— Perrens, pp. 296-7.— Pro-
cesso Autentico, pp. 524, 528. — Cantu, Eretici d'ltalia, I. 234-5. — Benedicti PP.
XIV. De Servorum Dei Beatificatione, Lib. in. c. xxv. §§ 17-20. — Brev. Hist.
Ord. Prsedic. (Martene, Am pi. Coll. VI. 394). — Reusch, Der Index der verbotenen
Biicher, I. 368.
A goodly catalogue of miracles performed by Savonarola's intercession will be
found piously chronicled by Burlamaccbi and Bottonio (Baluz. et Mansi I. pp.
571-83).
CHAPTER V.
POLITICAL HERESY UTILIZED BY THE STATE.
It was inevitable that secular potentates should follow the ex-
ample of the Church in the employment of a weapon so efficient
as the charge of heresy, when they chanced to be in the position
of controlling the ecclesiastical organization.
A typical illustration of this is seen when, during the anarchy
which prevailed in Eome after the death of Innocent VII. in 1406,
Basilio Ordelaffi incurred the enmity of the Colonnas and the Sa-
velli, and they found that the easiest way to deal with him was
through the Inquisition. Under their impulsion it seized him and
two of his adherents, Matteo and Merenda. Through means pro-
cured by his daughter, Ordelaffi escaped from prison and was con-
demned in contumaciam. The others confessed — doubtless under
torture — the heresies attributed to them, were handed over to the
secular arm, and were duly burned. Their houses were torn down,
and on their sites in time were erected two others, one of which
afterwards became the dwelling of Michael Angelo and the other
of Salvator Kosa.*
Secular potentates, however, had not waited till the fifteenth
century to appreciate the facilities afforded by heresy and the
Inquisition for the accomplishment of their objects. Already a
hundred years earlier the methods of the Inquisition had suggested
to Philippe le Bel the great crime of the Middle Ages — the de-
struction of the Order of the Temple.
When, in 1119, Huomes de Paven and Geoffroi de Saint- Adhe-
mar with seven companions devoted themselves to the pious task
of keeping the roads to Jerusalem clear of robbers, that pilgrims
might traverse them in safety, and when Kaymond du Puy about
* Ripoll II. 566.— Wadding, ann. 1409, No. 12.— Tamburini, Storia Gen. dell'
Inquis. II. 437-9.
THE TEMPLARS. 239
the same time organized the Poor Brethren of the Hospital of St.
John, they opened a new career which was irresistibly attractive
to the warlike ardor and religious enthusiasm of the age. The
strange combination of monasticism and chivalry corresponded so
exactly to the ideal of Christian knighthood that the Military
Orders thus founded speedily were reckoned among the leading
institutions of Europe. At the Council of Troyes, in 1128, a Rule,
drawn up it is said by St. Bernard, was assigned to Hugues and
his associates, who were known as the Poor Soldiers of the Tem-
ple. They were assigned a white habit, as a symbol of innocence,
to which Eugenius III. added a red cross, and their standard, Bau-
seant, half black and half white, with its legend, " Non nobis D onl-
ine" soon became the rallying-point of the Christian chivalry.
The Rule, based upon that of the strict Cistercian Order, was
exceedingly severe. The members were bound by the three mo-
nastic vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity, and these were
enforced in the statutes of the Order with the utmost rigor. The
applicant for admission was required to ask permission to become
the serf and slave of the " House " forever, and was warned that
he henceforth surrendered his own will irrevocably. He was
promised bread and water and the poor vestments of the House ;
and if after death gold or silver were found among his effects
his body was thrust into unconsecrated ground, or, if buried, it
was exhumed. Chastity was prescribed in the same unsparing
fashion, and even the kiss of a mother was forbidden.*
The fame of the Order quickly filled all Europe ; knights of
the noblest blood, dukes and princes, renounced the world to serve
Christ in its ranks, and soon in its general chapter three hundred
knights were gathered, in addition to serving brethren. Their
possessions spread immensely. Towns and villages and churches
and manors were bestowed upon them, from which the revenues
* Jac. de Vitriaco Hist. Hierosol. cap. 65 (Bongars, II. 1083-4).— Rolewinck
Fascic. Tempor. (Pistorii R. Germ. Scriptt. II. 546).— Regula Pauperum Com-
Hiilitonum Templi c. 72 (Harduin. VI. n. 1146).— Regie et Statuts secrets des
Templiers, §§ 125, 128 (Maillard de Chambure, Paris, 1840, pp. 455, 488-90,
494-5).
Since this chapter was written the Societe de l'Histoire de France has issued
a more correct and complete edition of the Rule and Statutes of the Templars,
under the care of M. Henri de Curzon.
2±0 POLITICAL HERESY.-THE STATE.
were sent to the Grand Master, whose official residence was Jeru-
salem, together with the proceeds of the collections of an organ-
ized system of beggary, their agents for which penetrated into
every corner of Christendom. Scarce had the Order been or-
ganized when, in 1133, the mighty warrior, Alonso I. of Aragon,
known as el Batallador and also as el Emperador, because his rule
extended over Navarre and a large portion of Castile, dying with-
out children, left his whole dominions to the Holy Sepulchre and to
the Knights of the Temple and of the Hospital in undivided thirds ;
and though the will was not executed, the knights were promised
and doubtless received compensation from his successor, Ramiro el
Monje. More practical was the liberality of Philip Augustus, in
1222, when he left the two Orders two thousand marks apiece
absolutely, and the enormous sum of fifty thousand marks each
on condition of keeping in service for three years three hundred
knights in the Holy Land. We can understand how, in 1191, the
Templars could buy the Island of Cyprus from Richard of Eng-
land for twenty-five thousand silver marks, although they sold it
the next year for the same price to Gui, King of Jerusalem. TVe
can understand, also, that this enormous development began to ex-
cite apprehension and hostility. At the Council of Lateran, in
1179, there was bitter strife between the prelates and the Military
Orders, resulting in a decree which required the Templars to sur-
render all recently acquired churches and tithes— an order which,
in 1186, Urban III. defined as meaning all acquired within the
ten years previous to the council."
This indicates that already the prelates were beginning to feel
jealous of the new organization. In fact, the antagonism which
* Jac. de Vitriaco loc. cit. — Roberti de Monte Contin. Sigeb. Gembl. (Pistorii,
op. cit. I. 875).— Zurita, Anales de Aragon, Lib. I. c. 52-3. — Art de Verifier les
Dates V. 337.— Teulet, Layettes, I. 550, No. 1547.— Grandes Chroniques, IV. 86.
— Gualt, Mapes de Nugis Curialiuin Dist. i. c. xxiii.— Hans Prutz, Malteser Ur-
kunden, Miiuchen, 1883, p. 43.
A curious illustration of the prominence which the Templars were acquiring
in the social organization is afforded in 1191, when they were made conservators
of the Truce of God, by which the nobles and prelates of Languedoc and Pro-
vence agreed that beasts and implements and seed employed in agriculture should
be unmolested in time of war. For enforcing this the Templars were to receive a
bushel of corn for every plough. — Prutz, op. cit. pp. 44-5.
THE TEMPLARS. o^
we have already traced in the thirteenth century between the
Mendicant Orders and the secular clergy was but the repetition
of that which had long existed with respect to the Military Or-
ders. These from the first were the especial favorites of the Holy
See, whose policy it was to elevate them into a militia depending
solely on Rome, thus rendering them an instrument in extending
its influence and breaking down the independence of the local
churches. Privileges and immunities were showered upon them
they were exempted from tolls and tithes and taxes of all kinds
their churches and houses were endowed with the right of asylum
their persons enjoyed the inviolability accorded to ecclesiastics
they were released from all feudal obligations and allegiance ; they
were justiciable only by Eome ; bishops were forbidden to excom-
municate them, and were even ordered to refer to the Roman curia
all the infinite questions which arose in local quarrels. In 1255,
after the misfortunes of the crusade of St. Louis, alms given to
their collectors were declared to entitle the donors to Holy Land
indulgences. In short, nothing was omitted by the popes that
would stimulate their growth and bind them firmly to the chair
of St. Peter.*
Thus it was inevitable that antagonism should spring up be-
tween the secular hierarchy and the Military Orders. The Tem-
plars were continually complaining that the prelates were en-
deavoring to oppress them, to impose exactions, and to regain
by various devices the jurisdiction from which the popes had
relieved them ; their right of asylum was violated ; the priests
interfered with their begging collectors, and repressed and inter-
cepted the pious legacies designed for them ; the customary quar-
rels over burials and burial-fees were numerous, for, until the rise
of the Mendicants, and even afterwards, it was a frequent thing
for nobles to order their sepulture in the Temple or the Hospital.
To these complaints the popes ever lent a ready ear, and the favor-
itism which they manifested only gave a sharper edge to the hos-
tility of the defeated prelates. In 126-4 there was a threatened
rupture between the papacy and the Temple. Etienne de Sissy,
Marshal of the Order and Preceptor of Apulia, refused to assist
* Rymer, Fcedera, I. 30.— Can. 10, 11, Extra, in. 30.— Prutz, op. cit. pp. 38,
46, 48, 49, 51. 52, 53, 56-6*1, 64, 76, 78-9.
III.-16
242 POLITICAL HERESY. — THE STATE.
in the crusade preparing against Manfred, and was removed by
Urban IV. When ordered to resign his commission he boldly
replied to Urban that no pope had ever interfered with the inter-
nal affairs of the Order, and that he would resign his office only
to the Grand Master who had conferred it. Urbau excommuni-
cated him, but the Order sustained him, being discontented be-
cause the succors levied for the Holy Land were diverted to the
papal enterprise against Manfred. The following year a new
pope, Clement IV., in removing the excommunication, bitterly re-
proached the Order for its ingratitude, and pointed out that only
the support of the papacy could sustain it against the hostility of
the bishops and princes, which apparently was notorious. Still
the Order held out, and in common with the Hospitallers and Cis-
tercians, refused to pay a tithe to Charles of Anjou, in spite of
which Clement issued numerous bulls confirming and enlarging its
privileges.*
That this antagonism on the part of temporal and spiritual
potentates had ample justification there can be little doubt. If,
as we have seen, the Mendicant Orders rapidly declined from the
enthusiastic self-abnegation of Dominic and Francis, such a body
as the Templars, composed of ambitious and warlike knights, could
hardly be expected long to retain its pristine ascetic devotion.
Already, in 1152, the selfish eagerness of the Grand Master, Ber-
nard de Tremelai, to secure the spoils of Ascalon nearly prevented
the capture of that city, and the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
was hastened when, in 1172, the savage ferocity of Eudes de Saint-
* Prutz, op. cit. pp. 38-41, 43, 45, 47-8, 57, 64-9, 75-80.— J. Delaville le
Roulx, Documents concernant les Templiers Paris, 1882, p. 39. — Bini, Dei Tem-
pieri in Toscana, Lucca, 1845, pp. 453-55. — Raynald. ann. 1265, No. 75-6. — Mar-
tene Thesaur. II. Ill, 118. '
The systematic beggary of the Templars must have been peculiarly exasper-
ating both to the secular clergy and the Mendicants. Monsignor Bini prints a
document of 1244 in which the Preceptor of Lucca gives to Albertino di Pontre-
moli a commission to beg for the Order. Albertino employs a certain Aliotto to
do the begging from June till the following Carnival, and pays him by empow-
ering him to beg on his own account from the Carnival to the octave of Easter
(op. cit. pp. 401-2, 439-40). For the disgraceful squabbles which arose between
the secular clergy and the Military Orders over this privileged beggary, see Fau-
con, Registres de Boniface VIII. No. 1950, p. 746.
THE TEMPLARS. 243
Amand, then Grand Master, prevented the conversion of the King
of the Assassins and all his people. It was not without show of
justification that about this time Walter Mapes attributes the mis-
fortunes of the Christians of the East to the corruption of the Mili-
tary Orders. By the end of the century we have seen from King
Richard's rejoinder to Foulques de Neuilly that Templar was
already synonymous with pride, and in 1207 Innocent III. took
the Order to task in an epistle of violent denunciation. His apos-
tolic ears, he said, were frequently disturbed with complaints of
their excesses. Apostatizing from God and scandalizing the Church,
their unbridled pride abused the enormous privileges bestowed upon
them. Employing doctrines worthy of demons, they give their
cross to every tramp who can pay them two or three pence a year,
and then assert that these are entitled to ecclesiastical services and
Christian burial, even though laboring under excommunication.
Thus ensnared by the devil they ensnare the souls of the faithful.
He forbears to dwell further on these and other wickednesses by
which they deserve to be despoiled of their privileges, preferring
to hope that they will free themselves from their turpitude. A
concluding allusion to their lack of respect towards papal legates
probably explains the venomous vigor of the papal attack, but the
accusations which it makes touch points on which there is other
conclusive evidence. Although by the statutes of the Order the
purchase of admission, directly or indirectly, was simony, entailing
expulsion on him who paid and degradation on the preceptor who
was privy to it, there can be no doubt that many doubtful charac-
ters thus effected entrance into the Order. The papal letters and
privileges so freely bestowed upon them were moreover largely
abused, to the vexation and oppression of those with whom they
came in contact, for, exclusively justiciable in the Roman curia,
they were secure against all pleaders who could not afford that
distant, doubtful, and expensive litigation. The evils thence arising
were greatly intensified when the policy was adopted of forming
a class of serving brethren, by whom their extensive properties
were cultivated and managed without the cost of hired labor.
Churls of every degree, husbandmen, shepherds, swineherds, me-
chanics, household servants, were thus admitted into the Order,
until they constituted at least nine tenths of it, and although these
were distinguished by a brown mantle in place of the white gar-
2±± POLITICAL HERESY. — THE STATE.
ment of the knights, and although they complained of the con-
tempt and oppression with which they were treated by their
knightly brethren, nevertheless, in their relations with the out-
side world, they were full members of the Order, shrouded
with its inviolability and entitled to all its privileges, which
they were not likely by moderation to render less odious to the
community."
Thus the knights furnished ample cause for external hostility
and internal disquiet, though there is probably no ground for the
accusation that, in 1229, they betrayed Frederic II. to the infidel, and,
in 1250, St. Louis to the Soldan of Egypt. Yet Frederic II. doubt-
less had ample reason for dissatisfaction with their conduct dur-
ing his crusade, which he revenged by expelling them from Sicily
in 1229, and confiscating their property ; and though he recalled
them soon after and assumed to restore their possessions, he re-
tained a large portion. Still, pious liberality continued to increase
the wealth of the Order, though as the Christian possessions in the
* Guillel. Tyrii Hist. Lib. xvn. c. 27 ; xx. 31-2.— Gualt. Mapes de Nugis
Curialium Dist. i. c. xx. — Innoc. PP. III. Regest. x. 121. Cf. xv. 131. — Regie et
Statuts secrets, § 173, p. 389.— Michelet, Proces des Templiers, I. 39; II. 9, 83,
140, 186-7, 406-7 (Collection de Documents inedits, Paris, 1841-51).
When, in 1307, the Templars at Beaucaire were seized, out of sixty arrested,
five were knights, one a priest, and fifty-four were serving brethren ; in June, 1310,
out of thirty-three prisoners in the Chateau d'Alais, there were four knights and
one priest, with twenty-eight serving brethren (Yaissette, IV. 141). In the trials
which have reached us the proportion of knights is even less. The serving breth-
ren occasionally reached the dignity of preceptor; but how little this implies is
shown by the examination, in June, 1310, of Giovanni di Neritone, Preceptor
of Castello Yillari, a serving brother, who speaks of himself as " simplex et rus-
ticus" (Schottmiiller, Der Ausgang des Templer-Ordens, Berlin, 1887, II. 125,
130).
The pride of birth in the Order is illustrated by the rule that none could be
admitted as knights except those of knightly descent. In the Statutes a case is
cited of a knight who was received as such ; those who were of his country de-
clared that he was not the son of a knight. He was sent for from Antioch to a
chapter where this was found to be true, when the white mantle was removed
and a brown one put on him. His receptor was then in Europe, and when he
returned to Syria he was called to account. He justified himself by his having
acted under the orders of his commander of Poitou. This was found to be true ;
otherwise, and but that he was a good knight {proudun*), he would have lost the
habit (Regie, § 125, pp. 462-3).
THE TEMPLARS. 245
East shrank more and more, people began to attribute the cease-
less misfortunes to the bitter jealousy and animosity existing be-
tween the rival Orders of the Temple and the Hospital, which in
1243 had broken out into open war in Palestine, to the great com-
fort of the infidel. A remedy was naturally sought in a union of
the two Orders, together with that of the Teutonic Knights. At
the Council of Lyons, in 1274, Gregory X. vainly endeavored to ef-
fect this, but the countervailing influences, including, it was said,
the gold of the brethren, were too powerful. In these reproaches
perhaps the Orders were held to an undeserved accountability,
for while their quarrels and the general misconduct of the Latins
in Palestine did much to wreck the kingdom of Jerusalem, the
real responsibility lay rather with the papacy. When thousands
of heretics were sent as crusaders in punishment, the glory of the
service was fatally tarnished. When money raised and vows taken
for the Holy Land were diverted to the purposes of the papal
power in Italy, when the doctrine was publicly announced that
the home interests of the Holy See were more important than the
recovery of the Holy Sepulchre, the enthusiasm of Christendom
against the infidel was chilled. When salvation could be gained
at almost any time by a short term of service near home in the
quarrels of the Church, whether on the Weser or in Lombardy,
the devotion which had carried thousands to the Syrian deserts
found a less rugged and a safer path to heaven. It is easy thus
to understand how in the development of papal aggrandizement
through the thirteenth century recruits and money were lacking to
maintain against the countless hordes of Tartars the conquests of
Godfrey of Bouillon. In addition to all this the Holy Land was
made a penal settlement whither were sent the malefactors of
Europe, rendering the Latin colony a horde of miscreants whose
crimes deserved and whose disorders invited the vengeance of
Heaven.*
* Matt. Paris, ann. 1228, 1243 (Ed. 1644, p. 240, 420).— -Mansuet le Jeune,
Hist, des Templiers, Paris, 1789, 1. 340-1.— Prutz, op. cit. pp. 60-1.— Mag. Cbron.
Belgic. ann. 1274.— Faucon, Registres de Boniface VIII. No. 1691-2, 1697.— Marin.
Sanuti Secret. Fidel. Lib. in. P. ix. c. 1, 2 (Bongars, II. 188-9).
The Hospital was open to the same reproaches as the Temple. In 1238
Gregory IX. vigorously assailed the Knights of St John for their abuse of the
privileges bestowed on thein — their unchastity and the betrayal of the cause of
246 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE STATE.
With the fall of Acre, in 1291, the Christians were driven
definitely from the shores of Syria, causing intense grief and in-
dignation throughout Europe. In that disastrous siege, brought
on by the perfidy of a band of crusaders who refused to observe
an existing truce, the Hospital won more glory than the Temple,
although the Grand Master, Guillaume de Beaujeu, had been chosen
to command the defence, and fell bravely fighting for the cross.
After the surrender and massacre, his successor, the monk Gaudini,
sailed for Cyprus with ten knights, the sole survivors of five hun-
dred who had held out to the last. Again, not without reason, the
cry went up that the disaster Avas the result of the quarrels be-
tween the Military Orders, and Nicholas IV. promptly sent letters
to the kings and prelates of Christendom asking their opinions on
the project of uniting them, in view of the projected crusade which
was to sail on St. John's day, 1293, under Edward I. of England.
At least one affirmative answer was received from the provincial
council of Salzburg, but ere it reached Rome Nicholas was dead.
A long interregnum, followed by the election of the hermit Pier
Morrone, put an end to the project for the time, but it was again
God in Palestine. He even asserts that there are not a few heretics among them.
— Raynald. aim. 1238, No. 31-2.
A sirvente by a Templar, evidently written soon after the fall of Acre, alludes
bitterly to the sacrifice made of the Holy Land in favor of the ambition and
cupidity of the Holy See —
" Lo papa fa de perdon gran largueza
Contr' Alamans ab Aries e Frances ;
E sai mest nos mostram gran cobeeza,
Quar nostras crotz van per crotz de tornes ;
E qui vol camjar Romania
Per la guerra de Lombardia?
Nostres legatz, don yeu vos die per ver
Qu'els vendon Dieu el perdon per aver." —
Meyer, Eecueil cfanciens Teztes, p. 96.
It is also to be borne in mind that indulgences were vulgarized in many other
ways. When St. Francis announced to Honorius III. that Christ had sent him to
obtain plenary pardons for those who should visit the Church of S. Maria di
Porziuncola, the cardinals at once objected that this would nullify the indulgences
for the Holy Land, and Honorius thereupon limited the Portiuncula indulgence
to the twenty-four hours commencing with the vespers of August 1. — Amonis
Legenda S. Francisci, Append, c. xxxiii.
THE TEMPLARS. 247
taken up by Boniface VIII. , to be interrupted and laid aside, prob-
ably by his engrossing quarrel with Philippe le Bel. What was
the drift of public opinion at the time is probably reflected in a
tract on the recovery of the Holy Land addressed to Edward I.
It is there proposed that the two Orders, whose scandalous quar-
rels have rendered them the object of scorn, shall be fused together
and confined to their eastern possessions, which should be sufficient
for their support, while their combined revenues from their west-
ern property, estimated at eight hundred thousand livres Tourr.ois
per annum, be employed to further the crusade. Evidently the
idea was spreading that their wealth could be seized and used to
better purpose than it was likely to be in their hands.*
Thus the Order was somewhat discredited in popular estima-
tion when, in 1297, Jacques de Molay, whose terrible fate has cast
a sombre shadow over his name through the centuries, was elected
Grand Master, after a vigorous and bitter opposition by the par-
tisans of Hugues de Peraud. A few years of earnest struggle to
regain a foothold in Palestine seemed to exhaust the energy and
resources of the Order, and it became quiescent in Cyprus. Its
next exploit, though not official, was not of a nature to conciliate
public opinion. Charles de Valois, the evil genius of his brother
Philippe le Bel, and of his nephews, in 1300 married Catherine,
granddaughter of Baldwin II. of Constantinople, and titular em-
press. In 1306 he proposed to make good his wife's claims on
the imperial throne, and he found a ready instrument in Clement
V., who persuaded himself that the attempt would not be a weak-
ening of Christianity in the East, but a means of recovering Pales-
tine, or at least of reducing the Greek Church to subjection. He
therefore endeavored to unite the Italian republics and princes in
this crusade against Christians. Charles II. of Naples undertook
an expedition in conjunction with the Templars. A fleet was
fitted out under the command of Koger, a Templar of high reputa-
tion for skill and audacity. It captured Thessalonica, but in place
of actively pursuing Andronicus II., the Templars turned their
* Mansuet, op. cit. II. 101, 133.— De Excidio Urbis Acconis (Martene Ampl.
Coll. V. 757).— Raynald. arm. 1291, No. 30, 31.— Archives Nat. de France, J. 431,
No. 40.— Chron. Salisburg. arm. 1291 (Canisii et Basnage III, n. 489).— Annal.
Eberhard. Altahens. (lb. IV. 229).— De Recuperatione Tense Sanctae (Bongars, II.
320-1).
24:8 POLITICAL HERESY. — THE STATE.
arms against the Latin princes of Greece, ravaged cruelly the shores
of Thrace and the Morea, and returned with immense booty, hav-
ing aroused enmities which were an element in their downfall. In
contrast to this the Hospitallers were acquiring fresh renown as
the champions of Christ by gallantly conquering, after a four
years' struggle, the island of Rhodes, in which they so long main-
tained the cause of Christianity in the East. In 1306 Clement
Y. sent for de Molay and Guillaume de Villaret, Grand Master of
the Hospitallers, to consult about a new crusade and the often dis-
cussed project of the union of the Orders. He told them to come
as secretly as possible, but while the Hospitaller, engrossed with
preparations for the siege of Rhodes, excused himself, de Molay
came in state, with a retinue of sixty knights, and manifested no
intention of returning to his station in the East. This well might
arouse the question whether the Templars were about to abandon
their sphere of duty, and if so, what were the ambitious schemes
which might lead them to transfer their headquarters to France.
The Teutonic knights in withdrawing from the East were carving
out for themselves a kingdom amid the Pagans of northeastern
Europe. Had the Templars any similar aspirations nearer home \ *
* Raynald. arm. 1306. No. 3-5, 12.— Regest, Clement. PP. V. (Ed. Benedict. T.
I. pp. 40-46: T. II. p. 55, 58, Romse, 1885-6).— Mansuet, op. cit. II. 132.— Ray-
nouard, Monuments historiques relatifs a la Condamnation des Chevaliers du Tem-
ple, Paris, 1813, pp. 17,46.
The summons to the Grand Master of the Hospital is dated June 6. 1306,
(Regest. Clem. PP. V. T. I. p. 190). That to de Molay was probably issued at the
same time. From some briefs of Clement, June 13, 1306, in favor of Humbert
Blanc, Preceptor of Auvergne, it would seem that the latter was engaged in some
crusading enterprise (Ibid. pp. 191-2), probably in connection with the attempt
of Charles of Valois. When Hugues de Peraud, however, and other chiefs of the
Order were about to sail, in November, Clement retained them (lb. T. II. p. 5).
It has rather been the fashion with historians to assume that de Molay trans-
ferred the headquarters of the Order from Cyprus to Paris. Yet when the papal
orders for arrest reached Cyprus, on May 27, 1308, the marshal, draper, and treas-
urer surrendered themselves with others, showing that there had been no thought
of removing the active administration of the Order. — (Dupuy, Traitez concernant
FHistoire de France, Ed. 1700, pp. 63, 132). Raimbaut de Caron, Preceptor of
Cyprus, apparently had accompanied de Molay. and was arrested with him in the
Temple of Paris (Proces des Templiers, II. 374), but with this exception all the
principal knights seized were only local dignitaries.
I think also that Schottmuller (Der Untergang des Ternpler-Ordens, Berlin,
THE TEMPLARS. 249
Suspicions of the kind might not unnaturally be excited, and
yet be wholly without foundation. Modern writers have exer-
cised their ingenuity in conjecturing that there was a plot on hand
for the Templars to seize the south of France and erect it into an
independent kingdom. The Order had early multiplied rapidly
in the provinces from the Garonne to the Eh one ; it is assumed
that they were deeply tinctured with Catharism, and held relations
with the concealed heretics in those regions. All this is the sheer-
est assumption without the slightest foundation. There was not
a trace of Catharism in the Order,* and we have seen how by this
time the Cathari of Languedoc had been virtually exterminated,
and how the land had been Gallicized by the Inquisition. Such
an alliance would have been a source of weakness, not of strength,
for it would have brought upon them all Europe in arms, and had
there been a shred of evidence to that effect, Philippe le Bel would
have made the most of it. Neither can it be assumed that thev
were intriguing with the discontented, orthodox population. Ber-
nard Delicieux and the Carcassais would never have turned to the
feeble Ferrand of Majorca if they could have summoned to their
assistance the powerful Order of the Temple. Yet even the Order
of the Temple, however great might have been its aggregate, was
fatally weakened for such ambitious projects by being scattered
in isolated fragments over the whole extent of Europe ; and its
inability to concentrate its forces for either aggression or defence
was shown when it surrendered with scarce an effort at self-pres-
ervation in one country after another. Besides, it was by no
means so numerous and wealthy as has been popularly supposed.
The dramatic circumstances of its destruction have inflamed the
imagination of all who have written about it, leading to a not un-
natural exaggeration in contrasting its prosperity and its misery.
An anonymous contemporary tells us that the Templars were so
1887, I. 66,99; II. 38) sufficiently proves the incredibility of the story of the im-
mense treasure brought to France by de Molay, and he further points out (I. 98)
that the preservation of the archives of the Order in Malta shows that they could
not have been removed to Fiance.
* Perhaps the most detailed and authoritative contemporary account ot the
downfall of the Templars is that of Bernard Gui (Flor. Chronic, ap. Bouquet
XXI. 716 sqq.). It is impossible to doubt that had there been anything savoring
of Catharism in the Order he would have scented it out and alluded to it.
250 POLITICAL HERESY. — THE STATE.
rich and powerful that they could scarce have been suppressed but
for the secret and sudden movement of Philippe le Bel. Villani,
who was also a contemporary, says that their power and wealth
were well-nigh incomputable. As time went on conceptions be-
came magnified by distance. Trithemius assures us that it was the
richest of all the monastic Orders, not only in gold and silver, but
in its vast dominions, towns and castles in all the lands of Europe.
Modern writers have even exceeded this in their efforts to present
definite figures. Maillard de Chambure assumes that at the time
of its downfall it numbered thirtv thousand knights with a revenue
of eight million livres Tournois. AYilcke estimates its income at
twenty million thalers of modern money, and asserts that in France
alone it could keep in the field an army of fifteen thousand cavaliers.
Zockler calculates its income at fifty-four millions of francs, and
that it numbered twenty thousand knights. Even the cautious
Havemann echoes the extravagant statement that in wealth and
power it could rival all the princes of Christendom, while Schott-
miiller assumes that in France alone there were fifteen thousand
brethren, and over twenty thousand in the whole Order.*
The peculiar secrecy in which all the affairs of the Order were
shrouded renders such estimates purely conjectural. As to num-
bers, it has been overlooked that the great body of members were
serving brethren, not fighting-men — herdsmen, husbandmen, and
menials employed on the lands and in the houses of the knights,
and adding little to their effective force. When they considered it
a legitimate boast that in the one hundred and eighty years of
their active existence twenty thousand of the brethren had per-
ished in Palestine, we can see that at no time could the roll of
knights have exceeded a few thousand at most. At the Council
of Yienne the dissolution of the Order was urged on the ground
that more than two thousand depositions of witnesses had been
taken, and as these depositions covered virtually all the prisoners
* Wilcke, Geschichte des Ordens der Tempelherren, II. Ausgabe, 1860, n. 51,
103-4, 183.— Chron. Anonyme (Bouquet, XXI. 149).— Villani Cron. vin. 92.—
Mag. Chron. Belgic. (Pistor. III. 155).— Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1307. —
Regie et Statuts secrets, p. 64. — Real-Encyklop. XV. 305. — Havemann, Geschichte
des Ausgangs des Tempelherrenordens, Stuttgart, 1846, p. 165. — Schottin tiller,
op. cit. I. 236, 695.
THE TEMPLARS. 251
examined in France, England, Spain, Italy, and Germany, whoso
evidence could be used, it shows that the whole number can only
have been insignificant in comparison with what had been general-
ly imagined. Cyprus was the headquarters of the Order after the
fall of Acre, yet at the time of the seizure there were but one hun-
dred and eighteen members there of all ranks, and the numbers
with which we meet in the trials everywhere are ludicrously out
of proportion with the enormous total popularly attributed to
the Order. A contemporary, of warmly papalist sympathies, ex-
presses his grief at the penalties righteously incurred by fifteen
thousand champions of Christ, which may be taken as an approxi-
mate guess at the existing number ; and if among these we assume
fifteen hundred knights, we shall probably be rather over than un-
der the reality. As for the wealth of the Order, in the general ef-
fort to appropriate its possessions it was every one's interest to con-
ceal the details of the aggregate, but we chance to have a standard
which shows that the estimates of its supereminent riches are gross-
ly exaggerated. In 1244 Matthew Paris states that it possessed
throughout Christendom nine thousand manors, while the Hospi-
tallers had nineteen thousand. Nowhere was it more prosperous
than in Aquitaine, and about the year 1300, in a computation of a
tithe granted to Philippe le Bel, in the province of Bordeaux, the
Templars are set down at six thousand livres, the Hospitallers at
the same, while the Cistercians are registered for twelve thousand.
In the accounts of a royal collector in 1293 there are specified in
Auvergne fourteen Temple preceptories, paying in all three hun-
dred and ninety-two livres, while the preceptories of the Hospital-
lers number twenty-four, with a payment of three hundred and
sixty-four livres. It will be remembered that a contemporary
writer estimates the combined revenues of the two Orders at eight
hundred thousand livres Tournois per annum, and of this the larger
portion probably belonged to the Hospital.*
* Proces des Templiers, I. 144.— Raynald. aim. 1307, No. 12 ; arm. 1311, No.
53.— Schottmuller, op. cit. I. 465.— Ferreti Vicentini Hist. (Muratori S. R. I. IX.
1018).— Matt. Paris, aim. 1244 (p. 417).— Dom Bouquet, XXI. 545.— Chassaing,
Spicilegium Brivatense, pp. 212-13.
An illustration of the exaggerations current as to the Templars is seen in the
assertion, confidently made, that in P.ouss'llon and Cerdagne the Order owned
252 POLITICAL HERESY. — THE STATE.
Yet the wealth of the Order was more than sufficient to excite
the cupidity of royal freebooters, and its power and privileges
quite enough to arouse distrust in the mind of a less suspicious
despot than Philippe le Bel. Many ingenious theories have been
advanced to explain his action, but they are superfluous. In his
quarrel with Boniface VIIL, though the Templars were accused
of secretly sending money to Eome in defiance of his prohihition,
they stood by him and signed an act approving and confirming
the assembly of the Louvre in June, 1303, where Boniface was for-
mally accused of heresy, and an appeal was made to a future
council to be assembled on the subject. So cordial, in fact, was the
understanding between the king and the Templars that royal let-
ters of July 10, 1303, show that the collection of all the royal rev-
enues throughout France was intrusted to Hugues de Peraud, the
Visitor of France, who had narrowly missed obtaining the Grand
Mastership of the Order. In June, 1304, Philippe confirmed all
their privileges, and in October he issued an Ordonnance granting
them additional ones and speaking of their merits in terms of
warm appreciation. They lent him, in 1299, the enormous sum of
five hundred thousand livres for the dowry of his sister. As late
as 1306, when Hugues de Peraud had suffered a loss of two thou-
sand silver marks deposited with Tommaso and Yanno Mozzi, Flor
entine bankers, who fraudulently disappeared, Philippe promptly
intervened and ordered restitution of the sum by Aimon, Abbot of
S. Antoine, who had gone security for the bankers. When in his
extreme financial straits he debased the coinage until a popular
insurrection was excited in Paris, it was in the Temple that he
took refuge, and it was the Templars that defended him against
the assaults of the mob. But these very obligations were too great
to be incurred by a monarch who was striving to render himself
absolute, and the recollection of them could hardly fail to suggest
that the Order was a dangerous factor in a kingdom where feudal
half the land, while an examination of its Cartulary shows that in reality it pos-
sessed but four lordships, together with fragmentary rights over rents, tithes, or
villeins in seventy other places. A single abbey, that of St. Michel de Cuxa,
possessed thirty lordships and similar rights in two hundred other places, and
there were two other abbeys, Aries, and Cornelia de Conflent, each richer than
the Templars. — Allart, Bulletin de la Societe Agricole, Scientifique et Litteraire
des Pyrenees Orientales, T. XV. pp. 107-8.
THE TEMPLARS. 253
institutions were being converted into a despotism. While it
might not have strength to sever a portion of the provinces and
erect an independent principality, it might at any moment become
a disagreeable element in a contest with the great feudatories to
whom the knights were bound by common sympathies and inter-
ests. He was engaged in reducing them to subjection by the ex-
tension of the royal jurisdiction, and the Templars were subject
to no jurisdiction save that of the Holy See. They were not his
subjects ; they owed him no obedience or allegiance ; he could not
summon them to perform military service as he could his bishops,
but they enjoyed the right to declare war and make peace on their
own account without responsibility to any one ; they were clothed
in all the personal inviolability of ecclesiastics, and he possessed no
means of control over them as he did with the hierarchy of the
Gallican Church. They were exempt from all taxes and tolls and
customs dues ; their lands contributed nothing to his necessities,
save when he could wring from the pope the concession of a tithe.
While thus in every way independent of him, they were bound by
rules of the blindest and most submissive obedience to their own
superiors. The command of the Master was received as an order
from God ; no member could have a lock upon a bag or trunk,
could bathe or let blood, could open a letter from a kinsman with-
out permission of his commander, and any disobedience forfeited
the habit and entailed imprisonment in chains, with its indelible
disabilities. It is true that in 1295 there had been symptoms of
turbulence in the Order, when the intervention of Boniface YIII.
was required to enforce subjection to the Master, but this had
passed away, and the discipline within its ranks was a religious
obligation which rendered it vastly more efficient for action than
the elastic allegiance of the vassal to his seigneur. Such a body
of armed warriors was an anomaly in a feudal organization, and
when the Templars seemed to have abandoned their military ac-
tivity in the East, Philippe, in view of their wealth and numbers
in France, may well have regarded them as a possible obstacle to
his schemes of monarchical aggrandizement to be got rid of at the
first favorable moment. At the commencement of his reign he
had endeavored to put a stop to the perpetual acquisitions of both
the religious Orders and the Templars, through which increasing
bodies of land were falling under mainmorte, and the fruitlessness
25± POLITICAL HERESY. — THE STATE.
of the effort must have strengthened his convictions of its neces-
sity. If it be asked why he attacked the Templars rather than the
Hospitallers, the answer is probably to be found in the fact that
the Temple was the weaker of the two, while the secrecy shroud-
ing its ritual rendered it an object of popular suspicion.*
Walsingham asserts that Philippe's design in assailing the Tem-
plars was to procure for one of his younger sons the title of King of
Jerusalem, with the Templar possessions as an appanage. Such a
project was completely within the line of thought of the time, and
would have resulted in precipitating Europe anew upon Syria. It
may possibly have been a motive at the outset, and was gravely
discussed in the Council of Vienne in favor of Philippe le Long,
but it is evident that no sovereign outside of France would have
permitted the Templar dominions within his territories to pass
under the control of a member of the aspiring house of Capet.f
For the explanation of Philippe's action, however, we need
hardly look further than to financial considerations. He was in
desperate straits for money to meet the endless drain of the Flem-
ish war. He had imposed taxes until some of his subjects were in
revolt, and others were on the verge of it. He had debased the
currency until he earned the name of the Counterfeiter, had found
himself utterly unable to redeem his promises, and had discovered
by experience that of all financial devices it was the most costly
and ruinous. His resources were exhausted and his scruples were
few. The stream of confiscations from Languedoc was beginning to
run dry, while the sums which it had supplied to the royal treasury
for more than half a century had shown the profit which was de-
rivable from well-applied persecution of heresy. He had just car-
* Du Puy, Hist, du Differend, Preuves, pp. 136-7.— Baudouin, Lettres inedites
de Philippe le Bel, p. 163.— Maillard de Chambure, p. 61. — Grandes Chroniques,V.
173.— Raynouard, pp. 14, 21.— Ryraer, I. 30.— Regest. Clement. PP. V. T. I. p. 192
(Ed. Benedict. Romse, 1885).— Prutz, pp. 23, 31, 38, 46, 49, 51-2, 59, 76, 78, 79,
80.— Regie et Statuts, § 29, p. 226 ; § 58, pp. 249, 254 ; § 126, pp. 463-4.— Thomas,
Registres de Boniface VIII. T. I. No. 490.— Baudouin, op. cit, p. 212.
Schottmiiller (Der Untergang des Templer-Ordens, Berlin, 1887, I. 65) con-
jectures that the loan of five hundred thousand livres to Philippe is probably a
popular error arising from the intervention of the Templars as bankers in the
payment of the dowry.
f D'Argentre I. i. 280.— Wilcke, op. cit. II. 304-6.
THE TEMPLARS. 255
ried out a financial expedient of the same kind as his dealings with
the Templars, by arresting all the Jews of the kingdom simultane-
ously, stripping them of their property, and banishing them under
pain of death. A memorandum of questions for consideration,
still preserved in the Tresor des Chartres, shows that he expected
to benefit in the same way from the confiscation of the Templar
possessions, while, as we shall see, he overlooked the fact that
these, as ecclesiastical property, were subject to the imprescriptible
rights of the Church.*
The stories about Squin de Florian, a renegade Templar, and
Noffo Dei, a wicked Florentine, both condemned to death and con-
cocting the accusations to save themselves, are probably but the
conception of an imaginative chronicler, handed down from one
annalist to another, f Such special interposition was wholly un-
necessary. The foolish secrecy in which the Templars enveloped
their proceedings was a natural stimulus of popular curiosity and
suspicion. Alone among religious Orders, the ceremonies of recep-
tion were conducted in the strictest privacy ; chapters were held
at daybreak with doors closely guarded, and no participant was
allowed to speak of what was done, even to a fellow-Templar not
concerned in the chapter, under the heaviest penalty known — that
of expulsion. That this should lead to gossip and stories of rites
too repulsive and hideous to bear the light was inevitable. It was
the one damaging fact against them, and when Humbert Blanc,
Preceptor of Auvergne, was asked on his trial why such secrecy
was observed if they had nothing to conceal, he could only an-
swer " through folly." Thus it was common report that the neo-
phyte was subjected to the humiliation of kissing the posteriors
of his preceptor — a report which the Hospitallers took special
pleasure in circulating. That unnatural lusts should be attributed
to the Order is easily understood, for it was a prevalent vice of the
Middle Ages, and one to which monastic communities were espe-
* Guill. Nangiac. Contin. ann. 1306. — Vaissette, IV. 135.— Raynouard, p. 24.
t Villani, Cron. vin. 92. — Amalr. Augerii Vit. Clera. V. (Muratori S. R. I. III.
II. 443-44).— S. Antonini Hist. (D'Argentre I. i. 281).— Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug.
ann. 1307.— Raynald. ann. 1307, No. 12. The best-informed contemporaries,
Bernard Gui, the Continuation of Nangis, Jean de S. Victor, the Grandes Chro-
niques, say nothing about this story.
256 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE STATE.
cially subject ; as recently as 1292 a horrible scandal of this kind
had led to the banishment of many professors and theologians of
the University of Paris. Darker rumors were not lacking of un-
christian practices introduced in the Order by a Grand Master
taken prisoner by the Soldan of Babylon, and procuring his release
under promise of rendering them obligatory on the members.
There was also a legend that in the early davs of the Order two
Templars were riding on one horse in a battle beyond seas. The
one in front recommended himself to Christ and was sorely
wounded ; the one behind recommended himself to him who best
could help, and he escaped. The latter was said to be the demon
in human shape who told his wounded comrade that if he would
believe him the Order would grow in wealth and power. The
Templar was seduced, and thence came error and unbelief into the
organization. "We have seen how readily such stories obtained
credence throughout the Middle Ages, how they grew and became
embroidered with the most fantastic details. The public mind
was ripe to believe anything of the Templars ; a spark only was
needed to produce a conflagration.*
* Regie et Statuts secrets, §81, p. 314; §124. p. 448— Wilkins Concilia II.
338.— Proces des Templiers, I. 186-7, 454 ; II. 139, 153, 195-6, 223, 440, 445, 471.
— S. Damiani Lib. Gomorrhian. — Guillel. Nangiac. aim. 1120. — Alani de Insulis
Lib. de Planctu Naturae. — Gualt. Mapes de Nugis Curialium i. xxiv. — Prediche
del B. Fra Giordano da Rivalto, Firenze, 1831, L 230.— Regest. Clement. PP. V. T.
V. p. 259 (Ed. Benedictin. Romae, 1887).— Alvar. Pelag. de Planet. Eccles. Lib. u.
Art. ii. fol. lxxxiii. — Menioires de Jacques Du Clercq, Liv. in. ch. 42; Liv. iv.
ch. 3. — Rogeri Bacon Compend. Studii Philosophise cap. ii. (M. R. Series I. 412).
Unnatural crime was subject to ecclesiastical jurisdiction and the punishment
was burning alive (Tres Ancien Cout. de Bretagne, Art. 112, 142 ap. Bourdot de
Richebourg, IV. 227, 232. — Statuta Criminalia Mediolani e tenebris in lucem
edita, cap. 51, Bergomi, 1594). An instance of the infliction of the penalty by
secular justice is recorded at Bourges in 1445 (Jean Chartier. Hist, de Charles
VII. Ed. Godefroy, p. 72), and another at Zurich in 1482 (V. Anaheim, Die Berner
Chronik, Bern. 1884, 1. 221), though in 1451 Nicholas V. had subjected the crime
to the Inquisition (Ripoll III. 301). D'Argentre" says " Haec poena toto regno et
vulgo statutis Italiae indicitur per civitates, sed pene irritis legibus" (Comment.
Consuetud. Due. Britann. p. 1810). In England it was a secular crime, punish-
able by burning alive (Home, Myrroi of Justice, cap. iv. § 14) and in Spain by
castration and lapidation (El Fuero real de Espana. Lib. rv. Tit. ix. I. 2).
The gossiping experiences in Syria and Italy of Antonio Sicci da Vercelli, as
THE TEMPLARS. 257
Philippe's ministers and agents — Guillaume de Nogaret, Guil-
laume de Plaisian, Eenaud de Roye, and Enguerrand de Marigny
— were quite fitted to appreciate such an opportunity to relieve
the royal exchequer, nor could they be at a loss in finding testi-
mony upon which to frame a formidable list of charges, for we
have already seen how readily evidence was procured from ap-
parently respectable witnesses convicting Boniface VIII. of crimes
equally atrocious. In the present case the task was easier: the
Templars could have been no exception to the general demoraliza-
tion of the monastic Orders, and in their ranks there must have
been many desperate adventurers, ready for any crime that would
bring a profit. Expelled members there were in plenty who had
been ejected for their misdeeds, and who could lose nothing by
gratifying their resentments. Apostates also were there who had
fled from the Order and were liable to imprisonment if caught,
besides the crowd of worthless ribalds whom the royal agents
could always secure when evidence for any purpose was wanted.
These were quietly collected by Guillaume de Nogaret, and kept
in the greatest secrecy at Corbeil under charge of the Dominican,
Humbert. Heresy was, of course, the most available charge to
bring. The Inquisition was there as an unfailing instrument to
secure conviction. Popular rumor, no matter by whom affirmed,
was sufficient to require arrest and trial, and when once on trial
there were few indeed from whom the inquisitorial process could
not wring conviction. When once the attempt was determined
upon the result was inevitable.*
Still, the attempt could not be successful without the concur-
rence of Clement V., for the inquisitorial courts, both of the Holy
Office and of the bishops, were under papal control, and, besides,
public opinion would require that the guilt of the Order should
related before the papal commission in March, 1311, show the popular belief
that there was a terrible secret in the Order which none of its members dared
reveal (Proces, I. 644-5).
It is perhaps a coincidence that in 1307 the Teutonic Order was likewise ac-
cused of heresy by the Archbishop of Riga. Its Grand Master, Carl Beffart, was
summoned by Clement, and with difficulty averted from his Order the fate of the
Templars.— Wilcke, II. 118.
* Proces des Templiers, I. 36, 168.— Chron. Anonyme (Bouquet, XXI. 137).—
Joann. de S.Victor. (Bouquet, XXI. 649-50).
III.— 17
258 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE STATE.
be proved in other lands besides France. To enable Philippe to
enjoy the expected confiscations in his own dominions, confis-
cation must be general throughout Europe, and for this the co-
operation of the Holy See was essential. Clement subsequently de-
clared that Philippe broached the subject to him in aD its details
before his coronation at Lyons, November 14, 1305,* but the papal
bulls throughout the whole matter are so infected with mendacity
that slender reliance is to be placed on their statements. Doubt
less there was some discussion about the current reports defaming
the Order, but Clement is probably not subject to the imputation
which historians have thrown upon him, that his summons to de
Molay and de Villaret in 1306 was purely a decoy. It seems to
me reasonable to conclude that he sent for them in good faith,
and that de Molay's own imprudence in establishing himself in
France, as though for a permanence, excited at once the suspicions
-and cupidity of the king, and ripened into action what had pre-
viously been merely a vague conception.f
If such was the case, Philippe was not long in maturing the
project, nor were his agents slow in gathering material for the
accusation. In his interview with Clement at Poitiers, in the
spring of 1307, he vainly demanded the condemnation of the
memor}7 of Boniface VIII. , and, failing in this, he brought for-
ward the charges against the Templars, while temporarily drop-
ping the other matter, but with equal lack of immediate result.
Clement sent for de Molay, who came to him with Eaimbaud de
Caron, Preceptor of Cyprus, Geoffroi de Gonneville, Preceptor of
Aquitaine and Poitou, and Hugues de Peraud, Visitor of France,
the principal officers of the Order then in the kingdom. The
charges were communicated to them in all their foulness. Clem-
* Bull. Pastor alia praeminentim (Mag. Bull. Rom. Supplem. IX. 126). — Bull.
Faciena miaericordiam (lb. p. 136). — The Itineraries of Philippe and the record of
pastoral visitations by Bertrand de Goth (Clement V.) sufficiently disprove the
legendary story, originating with Villani, of the conditions entered into in advance
at St. Jean d'Angely between Philippe and Clement (see van Os, De Abolitione
Ordinis Templariorum, Herbipoli, 1874, pp. 14—15). None the less, however, was
Clement practically subordinated to Philippe.
t Schottmuller's theory (Der Untergang des Templer-Ordens, I. 91) that Clem-
ent summoned the chiefs of the two Military Orders to arrange with them for the
protection of the Holy See against Philippe appears to me destitute of all prob-
ability.
THE TEMPLARS. 259
ent subsequently had the audacity to declare to all Europe that
de Molay before his arrest confessed their truth in the presence
of his subordinates and of ecclesiastics and laymen, but this is a
manifest lie. The Templars returned to Paris evidently relieved
of all anxiety, thinking that they had justified themselves com-
pletely, and de Molay, on October 12, the eve of the arrest, had
the honor to be one of the four pall-bearers at the obsequies of
Catharine, wife of Charles de Valois, evidently for the purpose of
lulling him with a sense of security. Nay, more, on August 24,
Clement had written to Philippe urging him to make peace with
England, and referring to his charges against the Templars in their
conversations at Lyons and Poitiers, and the representations on
the subject made by his agents. The charges, he says, appear to
him incredible and impossible, but as de Molay and the chief of-
ficers of the Order had complained of the reports as injurious, and
had repeatedly asked for an investigation, offering to submit to
the severest punishment if found guilty, he proposes in a few days,
on his return to Poitiers, to commence, with the advice of his car-
dinals, an examination into the matter, for which he asks the king
to send him the proofs.*
No impression had evidently thus far been made upon Clement,
and he wras endeavoring, in so far as he dared, to shuffle the affair
aside. Philippe, however, had under his hands the machinery
requisite to attain his ends, and he felt assured that when the
Church was once committed to it, Clement w^ould not venture to
withdraw. The Inquisitor of France, Guillaume de Paris, was his
confessor as well as papal chaplain, and could be relied upon. It
wras his official duty to take cognizance of all accusations of heresy,
and to summon the secular powder to his assistance, wmile his aw-
ful authority overrode all the special immunities and personal in-
violability of the Order. As the Templars were all defamed for
heresy by credible witnesses, it was strictly according to legal form
for Frere Guillaume to summon Philippe to arrest those within
his territories and bring them before the Inquisition for trial. As
* Villani Chron. vin. 91-2.— Raynald. aim. 1311, No. 26.— Ptol. Lucens. Hist.
Eccles. Lib. xxiv. (Muratori S. R. I. XI. 1228).— Contin. Guill. Naugiac. arm. 1307.
— Raynouard, pp. 18, 19.— Van Os De Abol. Ord. Templar, p. 43.— Proces des
Templiers, II. 400.— Mag. Bull. Rom. IX. 131.— Proces, I. 95.— Du Puy, Traitez
concernant 1'Histoire de France, Paris, 1700, pp. 10, 117.
260 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE STATE.
the enterprise was a large one, secrecy and combined operations
were requisite for its success, and Philippe, as soon as Clement's
letter had shown him that he was not to expect immediate papal
co-operation, lost no time. He always asserted that he had acted
under requisition from the inquisitor, and excused his haste by de-
claring that his victims were collecting their treasures and prepar-
ing to fly. On September 14 royal letters were sent out to the
king's representatives throughout France, ordering the simultane-
ous arrest, under authority from Frere Guillaume. of all members
of the Order on October 13, and the sequestration of all property.
Frere Guillaume, on September 20, addressed all inquisitors and
all Dominican priors, sub-priors, and lectors, commissioning them
to act, and reciting the crimes of the Templars, which he charac-
terized as sufficient to move the earth and disturb the elements.
He had, he said, examined the witnesses, he had summoned the
king to lend his aid, and he cunningly added that the pope was
informed of the charges. The royal instructions were that the
Templars when seized were to be strictly guarded in solitary con-
finement ; they were to be brought before the inquisitorial com-
missioners one by one ; the articles of accusation were to be read
over to them ; they were to be promised pardon if they would
confess the truth and return to the Church, and be told that other-
wise they were to be put to death, while torture was not to be
spared in extracting confession. The depositions so obtained were
to be sent to the king as speedily as possible, under the seals of
the inquisitors. AH Templar property was to be sequestrated and
careful inventories be made out. In undertaking an act which
would shock public opinion in no common fashion, it was neces-
sary that it should be justified at once by the confessions wrung
from the prisoners, and nothing was to be spared, whether by
promises, threats, or violence, to secure the result.*
* Du Puy, pp. 18-19, 86. — Stemler, Contingent zur Geschichte der Templer,
Leipzig, 1783, pp. 36-50. — Pissot, Proems et Condamnation des Templiers, Palis,
1805, pp. 39-43.
Clement V., in his letters of November 21 to Edward of England, and No-
vember 22 to Robert, Duke of Calabria, describes Philippe as having acted under
the orders of the Inquisition, and as presenting the prisoners for judgment to the
Church (Rymer III. 30 ; MSS. Chioccarello, T. VIII.). The Holy Office was rec-
ognized at the time as being the responsible instrumentality of the whole affair
THE TEMPLARS. 261
This was all strictly in accordance with inquisitorial practice,
and the result corresponded with the royal expectations. Under
the able management of Guillaume de Nogaret, to whom the di-
rection of the affair was confided, on October 13 at daybreak the
arrests took place throughout the land, but few of the Templars
escaping. Nogaret himself took charge of the Paris Temple,
where about a hundred and forty Templars, with de Molay and
his chief officials at their head, were seized, and the vast treasure
of the Order fell into the king's hands. The air had been thick
with presages of the impending storm, but the Templars under-
rated the audacity of the king and had made no preparations to
avert the blow. Now they were powerless in the hands of the
unsparing tribunal which could at will prove them guilty out of
their own mouths, and hold them up to the scorn and detestation
of mankind.*
Philippe's first care was to secure the support of public opinion
and allay the excitement caused by this unexpected move. The
next day, Saturday, October 14, the masters of the university and
the cathedral canons were assembled in Notre Dame, where Guil-
laume de Nogaret, the Prevot of Paris, and other royal officials
made a statement of the offences which had been proved against
the Templars. The following day, Sunday the 15th, the people
were invited to assemble in the garden of the royal palace, where
the matter was explained to them by the Dominicans and the
royal spokesmen, while similar measures were adopted through-
out the kingdom. On Monday, the 16th, royal letters were ad-
dressed to all the princes of Christendom announcing the dis-
covery of the Templar heresy, and urging them to aid the king
in the defence of the faith by following his example. At once
(Chron. Fran. Pipini c. 49 ap. Muratori S. R. I. IX. 749-50). The bull Faciens
misericordiam, of August 12, 1308, gives the inquisitors throughout Europe in-
structions to participate in the subsequent proceedings (Mag. Bull. Rom. IX. 136).
In fact, the whole matter was strictly inquisitorial business, and it is a note-
worthy fact that where the Inquisition was in good working order, as in France
and Italy, there was no difficulty in obtaining the requisite evidence. In Castile
and Germany it failed ; in England, as we shall see, nothing could be done until
the Inquisition was practically established temporarily for the purpose.
* Dom Bouquet, XXI. 448. — Vaissette, IV. 139. — Chron. Anon. (Bouquet,
XXI. 137, 149).— Cont. Guill. Nangiac. ann. 1307.— Joann. de S.Victor. (Bouquet,
XXI. 649).— Proces des Templiers, I. 458; II. 373.
262 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE STATE.
the Inquisition was set busily at work. From October 19 to No-
vember 24 Frere Guillaume and his assistants were employed in
recording the confessions of a hundred and thirty-eight prison-
ers captured in the Temple, and so efficacious were the means
employed that but three refused to admit at least some of the
charges. What these methods were the records of course fail to
show, for, as we have seen, the official confession was alwa}rs made
after removal from the torture -chamber, and the victim was re-
quired to swear that it was free and unconstrained, without fear
or force, though he knew that if he retracted what he had uttered
or promised to utter on the rack he would be liable to fresh tort-
ure, or to the stake as a relapsed heretic. The same scenes were
enacting all over France, where the commissioners of Frere Guil-
laume, and sometimes Frere Guillaume himself, with the assistance
of the royal officials, were engaged in the same work. In fact,
the complaisant Guillaume, in default of proper material for labor
so extensive, seems occasionally to have commissioned the royal
deputies to act. A few of the reports of these examinations have
been preserved, from Champagne, Xormandy, Querci, Bigorre,
Beaucaire, and Languedoc, and in these the occasional allusions
to torture show that it was employed whenever necessary. In all
cases, of course, it was not required, for the promise of pardon and
the threat of burning would frequently suffice, in conjunction with
starvation and the harshness of the prison. The rigor of the ap-
plication of the inquisitorial process is shown by the numerous
deaths and the occasional suicides prompted by despair to which
the records bear testimony. In Paris alone, according to the tes-
timony of Ponsard de Gisiac, thirty-six Templars perished under
torture ; at Sens, Jacques de Saciac said that twenty-five had died
of torment and suffering, and the mortality elsewhere was noto-
rious. When a number of the Templars subsequently repeated
their confessions before the pope and cardinals in consistory, they
dwelt upon the excessive tortures which they had endured, al-
though Clement in reporting the result was careful to specify that
their confessions were free and unconstrained. De Molay, of
coarse, was not spared. He was speedily brought into a comply-
ing state of mind. Although his confession, October 24, is exceed-
ingly brief, and only admits a portion of the errors charged, yet
he was induced to sign a letter addressed to the brethren stating
THE TEMPLARS.
263
that he had confessed and recommending them to do the same, as
having been deceived by ancient error. As soon as he and other
chiefs of the Order were thus committed, the masters and students
of all the faculties of the university were summoned to meet in
the Temple ; the wretched victims were brought before them and
were required to repeat their confessions, which they did, with
the addition that these errors had prevailed in the Order for thir-
ty years and more.*
The errors charged against them were virtually five : I. That
when a neophyte was received the preceptor led him behind the
altar, or to the sacristy or other secret place, showed him a crucifix
and made him thrice renounce the prophet and spit upon the cross.
II. He was then stripped, and the preceptor kissed him thrice, on
the posteriors, the navel, and the mouth. III. He was then told
that unnatural lust was lawful, and it was commonly indulged in
throughout the Order. IV. The cord which the Templars wore
over the shirt day and night as a symbol of chastity had been
consecrated by wrapping it around an idol in the form of a human
head with a great beard, and this head was adored in the chapters,
though only known to the Grand Master and the elders. Y. The
priests of the Order do not consecrate the host in celebrating
mass. When, in August, 1308, Clement sent throughout Europe a
series of articles for the interrogation of the accused, drawn up for
him by Philippe, and varying according to different recensions
from eighty-seven to one hundred and twenty-seven in number,
these charges were elaborated, and varied on the basis of the im-
mense mass of confessions which had meanwhile been obtained.
The indecent kisses were represented as mutual between the re-
ceptor and the received ; disbelief in the sacrament of the altar
was asserted ; a cat was said to appear in the chapters and to be
worshipped ; the Grand Master or preceptor presiding in a chap-
ter was held to have power of absolving from all sin ; all brethren
* Joann. de S.Victor (Bouquet, XXL 649-50).— Contin. Guill. Nangiac. ann.
1307. — Chron. Anon. (Bouquet, XXL 137). — Schottmuller, op. cit. I. 131-33 —
Zurita, Anales de Aragon, Lib. v. c. 73.— Proces des Templiers, II. 6, 375, 386, 394.
— Du Puy, pp. 25-6, 88-91, 101-6.— Rayuouard, pp. 39-40, 164, 235-8, 240-5.—
Proces des Templiers, I. 36, 69, 203, 301 ; II. 305-6.— Ptol. Lucens. Hist. Eccles.
Lib. xxrv. (Muratori S. R. I. XL 1230).— Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1307.—
Chron. Anon. (Bouquet, XXL 149).
264 POLITICAL HERESY. — THE STATE.
were instructed to acquire property for the Order by fair means
or foul, and all the above were declared to be fixed and absolute
rules of the Order, dating from a time beyond the memory of any
member. Besides these, it was reproached for the secrecy of its
proceedings and neglect in the distribution of alms. Even this,
however, did not satisfy the public imagination, and the most
absurd exaggerations found credence, such as we have so frequently
seen in the case of other heresies. The Templars were said to have
admitted betraying St. Louis and the stronghold of Acre, and that
they had such arrangements with the Soldan of Babylon that if a
new crusade were undertaken the Christians would all be sold to
him. They had conveyed away a portion of the royal treasure,
to the great injury of the kingdom. The cord of chastity was
magnified into a leather belt, worn next the skin, and the mahom-
merie of this girdle was so powerful that as long as it was worn
no Templar could abandon his errors. Sometimes a Templar who
died in this false belief was burned, and of his ashes a powder was
made which confirmed the neophytes in their infidelity. AVhen
a child was born of a virgin to a Templar it was roasted, and of
its fat an ointment was made wherewith to anoint the idol wor-
shipped in the chapters, to which, according to other rumors,
human sacrifices were offered. Such were the stories which passed
from mouth to mouth and served to intensify popular abhorrence.*
It is, perhaps, necessary at this point to discuss the still mooted
question as to the guilt or innocence of the Order. Disputants
have from various motives been led to find among the Templars
Manichsean, Gnostic, and Cabalistic errors justifying their destruc-
tion. Hammer-Purgstall boasted that he had discovered and
identified no less than thirty Templar images, in spite of the fact
that at the time of their sudden arrest the Inquisition, aided by the
eager creatures of Philippe, was unable to lay its hands on a single
one. The only thing approaching it was a metal reliquary in
the form of a female head produced from the Paris Temple, wmich,
on being opened, was found to contain a small skull preserved as a
relic of the eleven thousand virgins. +
* Pissot, pp. 41-2. — Procks des Templiers, I. 89 sqq. — Mag. Bull. Roman. IX.
129 sqq. — Raynouard, p. 50. — Grandes Chroniques V. 188-90. — Chron. Auon.
(Bouquet, XXI. 137).— Naucleri Chron. ann. 1306.
t Wilcke, II. 424.— Proces des Templiers, II. 218. — The flimsiness of the evi-
THE TEMPLARS. 265
This fact alone would serve to dispose of the gravest of the
charges, for, if the depositions of some of the accused are to be be-
lieved, these idols were kept in every commandery and were em-
ployed in every reception of a neophyte. With regard to the
other accusations, not admitting thus of physical proof, it is to be
observed that much has been made by modern theorists of the
dence which suffices to satisfy archaeologists of this kind is seen in the labor-
ious trifling of M. Mignard, who finds in a sculptured stone coffer, discovered at
Essarois in 1789, all the secrets of gnostic Manichaeism, and who thereupon leaps
to the conclusion that the coffer must have belonged to the Templars who had
a preceptory within eight or ten miles of the place, and that it served as a re-
ceptacle for the Baphometic idol (Mignard, Monographic du coffret de M. le
due de Blacas, Paris, 1852.— Suite, 1853).
It is impossible to listen without respect to Professor Hans Prutz, whose
labors in the archives of Valetta I have freely quoted above, and one can only
view with regret the efforts of such a man wasted in piecing together contra-
dictory statements of tortured witnesses to evolve out of them a dualistic heresy
— an amalgamation of Catharan elements with Luciferan beliefs, to which even
the unlucky Stedingers contribute corroboration (Geheimlehre u. Geheimsta-
tuten des Tempelherren-Ordens, Berlin, 1879, pp. 62, 86, 100). It ought to be
sufficient to prevent such wasted labor for the future, to call attention to the fact
that if there had been ardor and conviction enough in the Order to risk the
organization and propagation of a new heresy, there would, unquestionably, have
been at least a few martyrs, such as all other heretical sects furnished. Yet not
a single Templar avowed the faith attributed to them and persisted in it. All
who confessed under the stress of the prosecution eagerly abjured the errors
attributed to them and asked for absolution. A single case of obstinacy would
have been worth to Philippe and Clement all the other testimony, and would
have been made the pivotal point of the trials, but there was not one such. All
the Templars who were burned were martyrs of another sort — men who had con-
fessed under torture, had retracted their confessions, and who preferred the stake
to the disgrace of persisting in the admission extorted from them. It does not
seem to occur to the ingenious framers of heretical beliefs for the Templars that
they must construct a heresy whose believers will not suffer death in its defence,
but will endure to be burned in scores rather than submit to the stigma of hav-
ing it ascribed to them. The mere statement of the case is enough to show the
fabulous character of all the theories so laboriously constructed, especially that of
M. Mignard, who proves that the Templars were Cathari— heretics wl?ose aspira-
tion for martyrdom was peculiarly notorious.
I have not been able to consult Loiseleur's " La Doctrine Secrete des Tem-
pliers" (Orleans, 1872), but from Prutz's references to it I gather that it is
grounded on the same false basis and is open to the same easy refutation.
Wilcke's speculations are too perversely crude to be worth attention.
266 POLITICAL HERESY. — THE STATE.
fact that the rules and statutes of the Order were reserved exclu-
sively for its chiefs, and it has been assumed that in them were
developed the secret mysteries of the heresy. Yet nothing of the
kind was alleged in the proceedings ; the statutes were never
offered in evidence by the prosecution, although many of them
must have been obtained in the sudden seizure, and this for the
best of reasons. Sedulously as they were destroyed, two or three
copies escaped, and these, carefully collated, have been printed.
They breathe nothing but the most ascetic piety and devotion to
the Church, and the numerous illustrative cases cited in them show
that up to a period not long anterior to the destruction of the
Order there were constant efforts made to enforce the rigid Eule
framed by St. Bernard and promulgated by the Council of Troves
in 1128. Thus there is absolutely no external evidence against the
Order, and the proof rests entirely upon confessions extracted by
the alternative of pardon or burning, by torture, by the threat of
torture, or by the indirect torture of prison and starvation, which
the Inquisition, both papal and episcopal, know so well how to
employ. We shall see, in the development of the affair, that when
these agencies were not employed no admissions of criminality
could be obtained.* ]So one who had studied the criminal juris-
* Writers unfamiliar with the judicial processes of the period are misled by
the customary formula, to the effect that the confirmation of a confession is not
obtained by force or fear of torture. See Raynald. ann. 1307, No. 12, and Bini,
Dei Tempieri in Toscana, p. 428. Wilcke asserts positively (op. cit. II. 318)
that de Molay never was tortured, which may possibly be true (Amalr. Auger.
Vit. Clem. V. ap. Muratori III. ii. 461), but he saw his comrades around him sub-
jected to torture, and it was a mere question of strength of nerve whether he
yielded before or after the rack. Prutz even says that in England neither tort-
ure nor terrorism was employed (Geheimlehre, p. 104), which we will see below
was not the case. Van Os (De Abol. Ord. Tempi, pp. 107, 109) is bolder, and
argues that a confession confirmed after torture is as convincing as if no torture
had been used. He carefully suppresses the fact, however, that retraction was
held to be relapse and entailed death by burning.
How the system worked is illustrated by the examination of the Preceptor of
Cyprus, Raimbaud de Caron, before the inquisitor Guillaume, Nov. 10, 1307.
When first interrogated he would only admit that he had been told in the
presence of his uncle, the Bishop of Carpentras, that he would have to renounce
Christ to obtain admission. He was then removed and subsequently brought
back, when he remembered that at his reception he had been forced to renounce
THE TEMPLARS. 267
prudence of the later Middle Ages will attach the slightest weight
to confessions obtained under such conditions. We have seen, in
the case of the Stedingers, how easy it was to create belief in the
most groundless charges. We have seen, under Conrad of Mar-
burg, how readily the fear of death and the promise of absolution
would cause nobles of birth and station to convict themselves of
the foulest and most impossible offences. We shall see, when we
come to consider persecution for witchcraft, with what facility the
rack and strappado procured from victims of all ranks confessions
of participating in the Sabbat, and of holding personal intercourse
with demons, of charming away harvests, of conjuring hail-storms,
and of killing men and cattle with spells. Riding through the
air on a broomstick, and commerce with incubi and succubi rest
upon evidence of precisely the same character and of much greater
weight than that upon wrhich the Templars were convicted, for
the witch was sure of burning if she confessed, and had a chance
of escaping if she could endure the torture, while the Templar was
threatened with death for obstinacy, and was promised immunity
as a reward for confession. If we accept the evidence against the
Templar we cannot reject it in the case of the witch.
As the testimony thus has no intrinsic weight, the only scien-
tific method of analyzing the affair is to sift the whole mass of
confessions, and determine their credibility according to the in-
ternal evidence wrhich they afford of being credible or otherwise.
Several hundred depositions have reached us, taken in France,
England, and Italy, for the most part naturally those incriminat-
ing the Order, for the assertions of innocence were usually sup-
pressed, and the most damaging witnesses were made the most of.
These are sufficiently numerous to afford us ample material for
estimating the character of the proof on which the Order was
condemned, and to obtain from them a reasonable approximation
to the truth requires only the application of a few tests suggested
by common-sense.
There is, firstly, the extreme inherent improbability that a rich,
Christ and spit on the cross, and had been taught that the gratification of un-
natural lust was permissible. Yet this confession, so evidently the result of tort-
ure, winds up with the customary formula that he swore it was not the result of
force or fear of prison or torture. — Proces, II. 374-5.
268 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE STATE.
worldly, and ambitious body of men like the Templars should be
secretly engaged in the dangerous and visionary task of laying the
foundations of a new religion, which would bring them no advan-
tage if they succeeded in supplanting Christianity, and which was
certain to lead them to destruction in the infinite chances of detec-
tion. To admit this is to ascribe to them a spiritual exaltation
and a readiness for martyrdom which we might expect from the
asceticism of a Catharan or a Dolcinist, but not from the worldli-
ness which was the real corroding vice of the Order. Secondly,
if the Templars were thus engaged in the desperate enterprise of
propagating a new faith under the eyes of the Inquisition, they
would be wary in initiating strangers ; they would exercise ex-
treme caution as to the admission of members, and only reyeal to
them their secrets by degrees, as they found them worthy of con-
fidence and zealously willing to incur the risk of martyrdom.
Thirdly, if a new dogma were thus secretly taught as an indispen-
sable portion of the Kule, its doctrines would be rigidly defined
and its ritual be closely administered. The witnesses who con-
fessed to initiation would all tell the same story and give the same
details.
Thus evidence of the weightiest and most coherent character
would be requisite to overcome the inherent improbability that
the Templars could be embarked in an enterprise so insane, in
place of which we have only confessions extracted by the threat
or application of torture, and not a single instance of a persistent
heretic maintaining the belief imputed to him. Turning to the
testimony to see whether it comports Avith the conditions which
we have named, we find that no discrimination whatever was
exercised in the admission of neophytes. Xot a single witness
speaks of any preliminary preparation, though several intimate
that they obtained entrance by making over their property to the
Order.* Indeed, one of the charges was, that there was no pre-
liminary probation, and that the neophyte at once became a pro-
fessed member in full standing, which, as explained by a knight of
Mas Deu, was because their services were considered to be at once
required against the Saracens.f Youths and even children of
tender years were admitted, although in violation of the statutes
* Procfcs, II. 188, 407. t Ibid. II. 451.
THE TEMPLARS. 209
of the Order, of ages ranging from ten or eleven years upward.*
High-born knights, priding themselves on their honor, priests, la-
borers, husbandmen, menials of all kinds were brought in, and, if
we are to believe their evidence, they were without notice obliged,
by threats of death and lifelong imprisonment, to undergo the
severest personal humiliation, and to perform the awful task of
renouncing their Saviour and spitting on, or even more outra-
geously defiling, the cross which was the object of their veneration
and the symbol of their faith. Such a method of propagating
heresy by force in the Europe of the Inquisition, of trusting such
fearful secrets to children and to unwilling men of all conditions,
is so absurd that its mere assertion deprives the testimony of all
claim to credence.
Equally damaging to the credibility of the evidence is the self-
contradictory character of its details. It was obtained by examin-
ing the accused on a series of charges elaborately drawn up, and
by requiring answers to each article in succession, so that the gen-
eral features of the so-called confessions were suggested in advance.
Had the charges been true there could have been little variation
in the answers, but in place of a definite faith or a systematic
ritual we find every possible variation that could suggest itself to
witnesses striving to invent stories that should satisfy their tort-
urers. Some say that they were taught Deism — that God in
heaven alone was to be worshipped.f Others, that they were
forced to renounce God.:}; The usual formula reported, however,
was simply to renounce Christ, or Jesus, while others were called
upon to renounce Notre Sire, or la Profeta, or Christ, the Virgin,
and the Saints.§ Some professed that they could not recollect
whether their renunciation had been of God or of Christ. II Some-
* Proces, I. 241, 412, 415, 602, 611 ; II. 7, 295, 298, 354, 359, 382, 394.— Regie,
§7, p. 211.
t Proces, I. 213, 332 ; II. 388,404.— Raynouard, p. 281.— In this and the fol-
lowing notes I can only give a few references as examples. To do so exhaust-
ively would be to make an analytical index of the whole voluminous mass of
testimony.
I Proces, I. 206, 242, 302, 378, 386, etc. ; II. 5, 27, etc.
§ Proces, I. 254, 417 ; II. 24, 62, 72, 104.— Bini, Dei Tempieri in Toscana, pp.
463, 470, 478.
U Proces, II. 42, 44, 59.
270 POLITICAL HERESY. — THE STATE.
times we hear that instruction was given that they should not
believe in Christ, that he was a false prophet, that he suffered for
his own sins, but more frequently that the only reason alleged was
that such was the Rule of the Order. * It was the same with the
idol which has so greatly exercised the imagination of commen-
tators. Some witnesses swore that it was produced whenever a
neophyte was received, and that its adoration was a part of the
ceremony ; others that it was only exhibited and worshipped in
the secrecy of chapters ; by far the greater number, however, had
never seen it or heard of it. Of those who professed to have seen
it, scarce two described it alike, within the limits suggested by the
articles of accusation, which spoke of it as a head. Sometimes it
is black, sometimes white, sometimes with black hair, and some-
times white and black mixed, and again with a long white beard.
Some witnesses saw its neck and shoulders covered with gold ; one
declared that it was a demon {Maufe) on which no one could look
without trembling ; another that it had for eyes carbuncles which
lighted up the room ; another that it had two faces ; another three
faces ; another four legs, two behind and two before, and yet an-
other said it was a statue with three heads. On one occasion it is
a picture, on another a painting on a plaque, on another a small fe-
male figure which the preceptor draws from under his garments,
and on another the statue of a boy, a cubit in height, sedulously
concealed in the treasury of the preceptory. According to the tes-
timony of one witness it degenerated into a calf. Sometimes it is
called the Saviour, and sometimes Bafomet or Maguineth — corrup-
tions of Mahomet — and is worshipped as Allah. Sometimes it is
God, creating all things, causing the trees to bloom and the grass to
germinate, and then again it is a friend of God who can approach
him and intercede for the suppliant. Sometimes it gives responses,
and sometimes it is accompanied or replaced by the devil in the
form of a black or gray cat or raven, who occasionally answers the
questions addressed to him, the performance winding up, like the
witches' Sabbat, with the introduction of demons in the form of
beautiful women, f
* Procfcs, I. 206-7, 294, 411, 426, 464, 533 ; II. 31, 128, 242, 366.
t Proems, L 190, 207, 399, 502, 597; II. 193, 203, 212, 279. 300, 313, 315, 363,
384.— Du Puy, pp. 105-6.— Raynouard, pp. 246-8, 279-83, 293.— Bini, pp. 465,
THE TEMPLARS. 271
Similar contradictions are observable in the evidence as to the
ritual of reception. The details laid down in the Eule are accu-
rately and uniformly described, but when the witnesses come to
474, 482, 487, 488.— Wilkins, Concilia, II. 358.— Schottmiiller, op. cit. II. 29, 50,
68, 70, 127, 410, 411.— Vaissette, IV. 141.— Stemler, pp. 124-5.
It is in this multiform creature of the imagination that Dr. Wilcke (II. 131-2)
sees alternately an image of John the Baptist and the triune Makroposopus of the
Cabala.
Among the few outside witnesses who appeared before the papal commission
in 1310-11, was Antonio Sicci of Vercelli, imperial and apostolic notary, who
forty years before had served the Templars in Syria in that capacity, and had
recently been employed in the case by the Inquisition of Paris. Among his
Eastern experiences he gravely related a story current in Sidon that a lord of
that city once loved desperately but fruitlessly a noble maiden of Armenia; she
died, and, like Periander of Corinth, on the night of her burial he opened her
tomb and gratified his passion. A mysterious voice said, " Return in nine months
and you will find a head, your son 1" In due time he came back and found
a human head in the tomb, when the voice said, " Guard this head, for all your
good-fortune will come from it !" At the time the witness heard this, Matthieu
le Sauvage of Picardy was Preceptor of Sidon, who had established brotherhood
with the Soldan of Babylon by each drinking the other's blood. Then a certain
Julian, who had succeeded to Sidon and to the possession of the head, entered
the Order and gave to it the town and all his wealth. He was subsequently
expelled and entered the Hospitallers, whom he finally abandoned for the Pre-
monstratensians (Proces, I. 645-6). This somewhat irrelevant and disconnected
story so impressed the commissioners that they made Antonio reduce it to writ-
ing himself, and lost no subsequent opportunity of inquiring about the head
of Sidon from all other witnesses who had been in Syria. Shortly afterwards
Jean Senandi, who had lived in Sidon for five years, informed them that the
Templars purchased the city, and that Julian, who had been one of its lords,
entered the Order but apostatized and died in poverty. One of his ancestors
was said to have loved a maiden and abused her corpse, but he had heard noth-
ing of the head (lb. II. 140). Pierre de Nobiliac had been for many years be-
yond seas, but had likewise never heard of it (lb. 215). At length their curiosity
was gratified by Hugues de Faure, who confirmed the fact that Sidon had been
purchased by the Grand Master, Thomas Berard (1257-1273), and added that
after the fall of Acre he had heard in Cyprus that the heiress of Maraclea, in Trip-
oli, had been loved by a noble who had exhumed her body and violated it, and
cut off her head, a voice telling him to guard it well, for it would destroy all who
looked upon it. He wrapped it up and kept it in a coffer, and in Cyprus, when
he wished to destroy a town or the Greeks, he would uncover it and accomplish
his purpose. Desiring to destroy Constantinople he sailed thither with it, but
his old nurse, curious to know what was in the coffer so carefully preserved,
272 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE STATE.
speak of the sacrilegious rites imputed to them, they flounder among
almost every variation that could suggest itself to their imagina-
tions. Usually renunciation of God or Christ and spitting on the
cross are both required, but in many cases renunciation without
spitting suffices, and in as many more spitting without renuncia-
tion.* Occasionally spitting is not sufficient, but trampling is added,
and even urination ; indeed some over-zealous witnesses declared
that the Templars assembled yearly to perform the latter cere-
mony, while others, while admitting the sacrilege of their reception
rites, say that the yearly adoration of the cross on Good Friday,
prescribed in the Rule, was also observed with great devotion.f
Generally a plain cross is described as the object of contempt, but
sometimes a crucifix is used, or a painting of the crucifixion in an
illuminated missal ; the cross on the preceptor's mantle is a com-
mon device, and even two straws laid crosswise on the ground suf-
fices. In some cases spitting thrice upon the ground was only
required, without anything being said as to its being in disrespect
of Christ.^ Many witnesses declared that the sacrilege was per-
formed in full view of the assembled brethren, others that the
neophyte was taken into a dark corner, or behind the altar, or into
another room carefully closed ; in one case it took place in a field,
in another in a grange, in another in a cooper-shop, and in another
opened it, when a sudden storm burst over the ship and sank it with all on
board, except a few sailors who escaped to tell the tale. Since then no fish have
been found in that part of the sea (lb. 223-4). Guillaume Avril had been seven
years beyond seas without hearing of the head, but had been told that in the
whirlpool of Setalias a head sometimes appeared, and then all the vessels there
were lost (lb. 238). All this rubbish was sent to the Council of Vienne as part
of the evidence against the Order
* Proces, I. 233, 242, 250, 414, 423, 429, 533, 536, 546, etc.
t Proces, I. 233 ; II. 219, 232, 237, 264,— Raynouard, 274-5, 279-80.— Bini, pp.
463, 497.
At the feast of the Holy Cross in May and September, and on Good Friday,
the Templars all assembled, and, laying aside shoes and head-gear and swords,
adored the cross, with the hymn —
Ador te Crist et benesesc te Crist
Qui per la sancta tua crou nos resemist. —
(Proces, II. 474, 491, 503.)
X Proces, I. 233, 250, 536, 539, 541, 546, 606 ; II. 226, 232, 336, 360, 369.—
Piaynouard, p. 275.
THE TEMPLARS. 273
in a room used for the manufacture of shoes.* As a rule the pre-
ceptor was represented as enforcing it, but in many cases the duty
was confided to one or more serving brethren, and in one instance
the person officiating had his head hidden in a cowl.f Almost
universally it formed part of the ceremonies of reception, some-
times even before the vows were administered or the mantle be-
stowed, but generally at the conclusion, after the neophyte was
fully committed, but there were occasional instances in which it
was postponed until a later hour, or to the next day, or to longer
intervals, extending, in one or two cases, to months and years.:):
Some witnesses declared that it formed part of all receptions;
others that it had been enforced in their case, but they had never
seen it or heard of it in other receptions at which they had been
present. In general they swore that they were told it was a rule
of the Order, but some said that it was explained to them as a joke,
and others that they were told to do it with the mouth and not
with the heart. One, indeed, deposed that he had been offered the
choice between renouncing Christ, spitting on the cross, and the
indecent kiss, and he selected the spitting.§ In fact, the evidence
as to the enforcement of the sacrilege is hopelessly contradictory.
In many cases the neophyte was excused after a slight resistance ;
in others he was thrust into a dark dungeon until he yielded.
Egidio, Preceptor of San Gemignano of Florence, stated that he
had known two recalcitrant neophytes carried in chains to Eome,
where they perished in prison, and Niccold Kegino, Preceptor of
Grosseto, said that recusants were slain, or sent to distant parts,
like Sardinia, where they ended their days. Geoffroi de Charney,
Preceptor of Normandy, swore that he enforced it upon the first
neophyte whom he received, but that he never did so afterwards,
and Gui Dauphin, one of the high officers of the Order, said virtu-
ally the same thing ; Gaucher de Liancourt, Preceptor of Keims,
on the other hand, testified that he had required it in all cases, for
* Proems, I. 530, 533, 536, 539, 544, 549, 565, 572, 622 ; II. 24, 27, 29, 31, 120,
280, 362, 546, 579.— Schottmuller, II. 413.
t Proems, I. 386, 536, 539, 565, 572, 592.
X Proces, I. 413, 434, 444, 469, 504, 559, 562; II. 75, 99, 113, 123, 205.— Ray-
nouard, p. 280.— Schottmuller, op. cit. II. 132, 410.
§ Proces, I. 407, 418, 435, 462, 572, 588 ; II. 27, 38, 67, 174, 185, 214.
III.— 18
274 POLITICAL HERESY,— THE STATE.
if he had not he would have been imprisoned for life, and Hugues
de Peraud, the Visitor of France, declared that it was obligatory
on him.*
It would be a work of supererogation to pursue this examina-
tion further. The same irreconcilable confusion reigns in the evi-
dence as to the other charges — the cord of chastity, the obscene
kiss, the mutilation of the canon of the mass,f the power of abso-
lution assigned to the Grand Master, the license for unnatural
crime. It might be argued, as these witnesses had been received
into the Order at times varying from fifty to sixty years previous
to within a few months, and at places so widely apart as Palestine
and England, that these variations are explicable by local usages
or by a gradually perfected belief and ritual. An investigation of
the confessions shows, however, that no such explanation will suf-
fice ; there can be no grouping as to the time or place of the cere-
mony. Yet there can be a grouping which is of supreme signifi-
cance, a grouping as to the tribunal through which the witness
passed. This is often very notable among the two hundred and
twenty-five who were sent to the papal commission from various
parts of France, and examined in 1310 and 1311. As a rule they
manifested extreme anxiety that their present depositions should
accord with those which they had made when subject to inquisi-
tion by the bishops — doubtless they made them as nearly so as
their memories would permit — and it is easy to see how greater or
less rigor, or how concert between those confined in the same pris-
on, had led to the concoction of stories such as would satisfy their
* Proces, I. 404; II. 260, 281, 284, 295, 299, 338, 354, 356, 363, 389, 3C0, 395,
407.— Bini, pp. 468, 488.
It is not easy to appreciate the reasoning of Michelet (Proces, II. vii.-viii.),
■who argues that the uniformity of denial in a series of depositions taken by the
Bishop of Elne suggests concert of statement agreed upon in advance, while the
variations in those who admitted guilt are an evidence of their veracity. If the
Templars were innocent, denials of the charges read to them seriatim would be
necessarily identical ; if they were guilty, the confessions would be likewise uni-
form. Thus the identity of the one group and the diversity of the other both
concur to disprove the accusations.
t Incontrovertible evidence that the Templar priests did not mutilate the
words of consecration in the mass is furnished in the Cypriote i^roceedings by
ecclesiastics who had long dwelt with them in the East. — Processus Cypricus
^Schottmiiller, II. 379, 382, 383).
THE TEMPLARS. 275
judges. Thus the confessions obtained by the Ordinary of Poi-
tiers have a character distinct from those extorted by the Bishop
of Clermont, and we can classify the penitents of the Bishop of
Le Mans, the Archbishop of Sens, the Archbishop of Tours, the
Bishops of Amiens, Rodez, Macon, in fact of nearly all the prelates
who took part in the terrible drama.*
Another feature indicating the untrustworthy character of the
evidence is that large numbers of the witnesses swore that they
had confessed the sacrilege committed to priests and friars of all
kinds, to bishops, and even to papal penitentiaries, and had received
absolution by the imposition of penance, usually of a trifling char-
acter, such as fasting on Fridays for a few months or a year.f No
ordinary confessor could absolve for heresy ; it was a sin reserved
for the inquisitor, papal or episcopal. The most that the con-
fessor could have done would have been to send the penitent to
some one competent to grant absolution, which would only have
been administered under the heaviest penance, including denunci-
ation of the Order. To suppose, in fact, that thousands of men,
during a period of fifty or a hundred years, could have been en-
trapped into such a heresy without its becoming matter of noto-
riety, is in itself so violent an assumption as to deprive the whole
story of all claims upon belief.
Thus the more closely the enormous aggregate of testimony is
examined the more utterly worthless it appears, and this is con-
firmed by the fact that nowhere could compromising evidence be
obtained without the use of inquisitorial methods. Had thousands
of men been unwillingly forced to abjure their faith and been ter-
rorized into keeping the dread secret, as soon as the pressure was
removed by the seizure there would have been a universal eager-
ness to unburden the conscience and seek reconciliation with the
Church. JSTo torture would have been requisite to obtain all the
evidence required. In view, therefore, of the extreme improba-
* Proces, I. 230-1, 264-74, 296-307, 331-67, 477-93, 602-19, 621-41 ; II. 1-3,
56-85, 91-114, 122-52, 154-77, 184-91, 234-56, 263-7.
t Proces, I. 298, 305, 319, 336, 372, 401, 405, 427, 436, etc.
It is not easy to understand the prescription of Friday fasting as a penance
for a Templar, for the ascetic rules of the Order already required, the most rigid
fasting. Meat was only allowed three days in the week, and a second Lent was
kept from the Sunday before Martinmas until Christmas (Regie, §§ 15, 57).
276 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE STATE.
bility of the charge, of the means employed to obtain proof for its
support, and the lack of coherence in the proof so obtained, it ap-
pears to me that no judicial mind in possession of the facts can
hesitate to pronounce a sentence, not merely of not proven, but of
acquittal. The theory that there were inner grades in the Order,
by which those alone to be trusted were initiated in its secret doc-
trines, is perfectly untenable. As there is no evidence of any kind
to support it, it is a matter of mere conjecture, which is sufficiently
negatived by the fact that with scarce an exception those who con-
fessed, whether ploughmen or knights, relate the sacrilege as tak-
ing place on their admission. If the witnesses on whom the pros-
ecution relied are to be believed at all, the infection pervaded the
whole Order.
Yet it is by no means improbable that there may have been
some foundation for the popular gossip that the neophyte at his
reception was forced to kiss the posteriors of his preceptor. As
we have seen, a large majority of the Order consisted of serving
brethren on whom the knights looked down with infinite con-
tempt. Some such occasional command on the part of a reckless
knight, to enforce the principle of absolute obedience, in admitting
a plebeian to nominal fraternity and equality, would not have
been foreign to the manners of the age. Who can say, moreover,
that men, soured with the disillusion of life within the Order,
chafing under the bonds of their irrevocable vow, and perhaps re-
leased from all religious convictions amid the license of the East,
may not occasionally have tested the obedience of a neophyte by
bidding him to spit at the cross on the mantle that had grown
hateful to him '(- Xo one who recognizes the wayward perversity
* This would seem not unlikely if we are to believe the confession of Jean
d'Aumones, a serving brother who stated that at his reception his preceptor
turned all the other brethren out of the chapel, and after some difficulty forced
him to spit at the cross, after which he said " Go, fool, and confess." This Jean
at once did, to a Franciscan who imposed on him only the penance of three Fri-
day fasts, saying that it was intended as a test of constancy in case of capture
by the Saracens (Proces, I. 588-91).
Another serving brother, Pierre de Cherrut, related that after he had been
forced to renounce God his preceptor smiled disdainfully at him, as though de-
spising him (lb. I. 531).
Equally suggestive is the story, told by the serving brother Eudes de Bures,
THE TEMPLARS. 277
of human nature, or who is familiar with the condition of monas-
ticism at the period, can deny the possibilities of such occasional
performances, whether as brutal jokes or spiteful assertions of
supremacy, but the only rational conclusion from the whole tre-
mendous tragedy is that the Order was innocent of the crime for
which it was punished.
While Philippe was seizing his prey, Clement, at Poitiers,
was occupied in the equally lucrative work of sending collectors
throughout Germany to exact a tithe of all ecclesiastical revenues
for the recovery of the Holy Land. When aroused from this
with the news that Philippe, under the authority of Frere Guil-
laume the inquisitor, had thus taken decided and irrevocable action
in a matter which was still before him for consideration, his first
emotion naturally was that of wounded pride and indignation,
sharpened perhaps by the apprehension that he would not be able
to secure his share of the spoils. He dared not publicly disavow
responsibility for the act, and what would be the current of pub-
lic opinion outside of France no man could divine. In this cruel
dilemma he wrote to Philippe, October 27, 1307, expressing his
indignation that the king should have taken action in a matter
which the brief of August 24 showed to be receiving papal con-
sideration. Carefully suppressing the fact of the intervention of
the Inquisition which legally justified the whole proceeding, Clem-
a youth of twenty at the time, that after his reception he was taken into another
room by two of the brethren and forced to renounce Christ. On his refusing at
first, one of them said that in his country people renounced God a hundred times
for a flea — perhaps an exaggeration, but " Je renye Dieu " was one of the com-
monest of expletives. When the preceptor heard him weeping he called to the
tormentors to let him alone, as they would set him crazy, and he subsequently
told Eudes that it was a joke (lb. II. 100-2).
What is the real import of such incidents may be gathered from a story re-
lated by a witness during the inquest held in Cyprus, May, 1310. He had heard
from a Genoese named Matteo Zaccaria, who had long been a prisoner in Cairo,
that when the news of the proceedings against the Order reached the Soldan
of Egypt he drew from his prisons about forty Templars captured ten years be-
fore on the island of Tortosa, and offered them wealth if they would renounce
their religion. Surprised and angered by their refusal, he remanded them to
their dungeons and ordered them to be deprived of food and drink, when they
perished to a man rather than apostatize. — Schottmiiller, op. cit. II. 160.
278 POLITICAL HERESY. — THE STATE.
ent sought a further ground of complaint .by reminding the king
that Templars were not under royal jurisdiction, but under that
of the Holy See, and he had committed a grave act of disobedi-
ence in seizing their persons and property, both of which must be
forthwith delivered to two cardinals sent for the purpose. These
were Berenger de Fredole, Cardinal of SS. JSTereo and Achille,
and Etienne de Suissi of S. Ciriaco, both Frenchmen and creatures
of Philippe, who had procured their elevation to the sacred college.
He seems to have had no trouble in coming to an understanding
with them, for, though the trials and tortures were pushed unre-
mittingly, another letter of Clement's, December 1. praises the
king for putting the matter in the hands of the Holy See, and one
of Philippe's of December 24 announces that he had no intention
of infringing on the rights of the Church and does not intend to
abandon his own ; he has, he says, delivered the Templars to the
cardinals, and the administration of their property shall be kept
separate from that of the crown. Clement's susceptibilities be-
ing thus soothed, even before the trials at Paris were ended he is-
sued, November 22, the bull Pastoralis prcBeminentice, addressed to
all the potentates of Europe, in which he related what Philippe
had done at the requisition of the Inquisitor of France, in order
that the Templars might be presented to the judgment of the
Church; how the chiefs of the Order had confessed the crimes
imputed to them ; how he himself had examined one of them who
was employed about his person and had confirmed the truth of
the allegations. Therefore he orders all the sovereigns to do like-
wise, retaining the prisoners and holding their property in the
name of the pope and subject to his order. Should the Order
prove innocent the property is to be restored to it, otherwise it
is to be employed for the recovery of the Holy Land.* This
* Regest. Clement. PP. V. T. II. p. 95.— Du Puy, pp. 117-18, 124, 134.— Schott-
miiller, I. 94.— Rymer, Feed. III. 30.— MSS. Chioccarello T. VIII.— Mag. Bull.
Rom. IX. 126, 131.— Zurita, Lib. v. c. 73.
Apparently there was a general expectation that the Hospitallers would share
the fate of the Templars, and a disposition was manifested at once to pillage
them, for Clement felt obliged, December 21, 1307, to issue a bull confirming all
their privileges and immunities, and to send throughout Europe letters ordering
them to be protected from all encroachments (Regest. Clem. PP. V. T III. pp.
14, 17-18, 20-1, 273; T. IV. p. 418).
THE TEMPLARS. 279
was the irrevocable act which decided the fate of the Templars, as
we shall see hereafter when we consider the action of the princes
of Europe outside of France.
Philippe thus had forced Clement's hand, and Clement was
fairly committed to the investigation, which in the hands of the
Inquisition could only end in the destruction of the Order. Secure
in his position, the king pushed on the examination of the prison-
ers throughout the kingdom, and the vigilance of his agents is
shown in the case of two German Templars returning home, whom
they arrested at Chaumont and delivered to the Inquisitor of the
Three Bishoprics. One was a priest, the other a serving brother,
and the inquisitor in reporting to Philippe says that he had not
tortured the latter because he was very sick, but that neither had
admitted that there was in the Order aught that was not pure
and holy. The examinations went on during the winter of 1308,
when Clement unexpectedly put a stop to them. "What was his
motive we can only conjecture ; probably he found that Philippe's
promises with regard to the Templar possessions were not likely
to be fulfilled, and that an assertion of his control was necessary.
Whatever his reasons, he suddenly suspended in the premises the
power of all the inquisitors and bishops in France and evoked to
himself the cognizance of the whole affair, alleging that the sud-
denness of the seizure without consulting him, although so near
and so accessible, had excited in him grave suspicions, which had
not been allayed by the records of the examinations submitted to
him, for these were of a character rather to excite incredulity —
though in November he had proclaimed to all Christendom his
conviction of their truth. It shows how completely the whole
judicial proceedings were inquisitional that this brought them to
an immediate close, provoking Philippe to uncontrollable wrath.
Angrily he wrote to Clement that he had sinned greatly : even
popes, he hints, may fall into heresy ; he had wronged all the prel-
ates and inquisitors of France ; he had inspired the Templars
with hopes and they were retracting their confessions, especially
Hugues de Peraud, who had had the honor of dining with the
cardinal-deputies. Evidently some intrigue was on foot, and Clem-
ent was balancing, irresolute as to which side offered most advan-
tage, and satisfied at least to show to Philippe that he was indis-
pensable. Philippe at first was disposed to assert his indepen-
280 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE STATE.
dence and claim jurisdiction, and he applied to the University for
an opinion to support his claims, but the Faculty of Theology re-
plied, March 25, 1308, as it could not help doing : the Templars
were religious and consequently exempt from secular jurisdiction ;
the only cognizance which a secular court could have over heresy
was at the request of the Church after it had abandoned the
heretic; in case of necessity the secular power could arrest a
heretic, but it could only be for the purpose of delivering him
to the ecclesiastical court ; and finally the Templar property must
be held for the purpose for which it was given to the Order.*
Philippe, thus foiled, proceeded to bring a still stronger pressure
to bear on Clement. He appealed to his subservient bishops and
summoned a national assembly, to meet April 15 in Tours, to delib-
erate with him on the subject of the Templars. Already, at the
Assemblv of Paris in 1302, he had called in the Tiers-Etat and had
learned to value its support in his quarrel with Boniface, and now
he again brought in the communes, thus founding the institution
of the States-General. After some delay the assembly met in
May. In his summons Philippe had detailed the crimes of the
Templars as admitted facts which ought to arouse for their pun-
ishment not only arms and the laws, but brute cattle and the four
elements. He desired his subjects to jmrticipate in the pious work,
and therefore he ordered the towns to select each two deputies
zealous for the faith. From a gathering collected under such im-
pulsion it was not difficult, in spite of the secret leaning of the
nobles to the proscribed Order, to procure a virtually unanimous
expression of opinion that the Templars deserved death.f
With the prestige of the nation at his back, Philippe went from
Tours, at the end of May, to Clement at Poitiers, accompanied by
a strong deputation, including his brothers, his sons, and his coun-
* Du Puy, pp. 12-13, 84-5, 89, 109, 111-12, 134.— D'Achery Spicileg. II.
199.— Raynouard, p. 238, 306.
Jean de S. Victor gives the date of the declaration of the University as the
Saturday after Ascension (May 25, ap. Bouquet, XXI. 651), but Du Puy de-
scribes the document as sealed with fourteen seals, and dated on Lady Day
(March 25).
t Archives Administrates de Reims, T. II. pp. 65, 66. — Chassaing Spicile-
gium Brivatense, pp. 274-5. — Du Puy, pp. 38-9, 85, 113, 116. — Contin. Naugiac.
ann. 1308. — Joann. de S. Victor. (Bouquet, XXI. 650). — Raynouard, p. 42.
THE TEMPLARS.
281
cillors. Long and earnest were the disputations over the affair,
Philippe urging, through his spokesman, Guillaume de Plaisian, that
the Templars had been found guilty and that immediate punish-
ment should follow; Clement reiterating his grievance that an
affair of such magnitude, exclusively appertaining to the Holy
See, should be carried on without his initiative. A body like the
Order of the Temple had powerful friends all over Europe whose
influence with the curia was great, and the papal perplexities were
manifold as one side or the other preponderated ; but Clement
had irrevocably committed himself in the face of all Europe by
his bull of November 22, and it was in reality but a question of
the terms on which he would allow the affair to go on in France
by removing the suspension of the powers of the Inquisition. The
bargaining was sharp, but an agreement was reached. As Clement
had reserved the matter for papal judgment, it was necessary that
some show of investigation should be had. Seventy-two Templars
were drawn from the prisons of Paris to be examined by the pope
and sacred college, that they might be able to assert personal
knowledge of their guilt. Clement might well shrink from con-
fronting de Molay and the chiefs of the Order whom he was be-
traying, while at the same time they could not be arbitrarily omit-
ted. They were therefore stopped at Chinon near Tours, under
pretext of sickness, while the others were sent forward to Poitiers.
From the 28th of June to July 1 they were solemnly examined by
five cardinals friendly to Philippe deputed for the purpose. The
official report of the examinations shows the care which had been
exercised in the selection of those who were to perform this scene
in the drama. A portion of them were spontaneous witnesses
who had left, or had tried to leave, the Order. The rest, with the
terrible penalty for retraction impending over them, confirmed the
confessions made before the Inquisition, which in many cases had
been extracted by torture. Then, July 2, they were brought before
the pope in full consistory and the same scene was enacted. Thus
the papal jurisdiction was recognized ; Clement in his subsequent
bulls could speak of his own knowledge, and could declare that the
accused had confessed their errors spontaneously and without coer-
cion, and had humbly begged for absolution and reconciliation.*
Ptol. Lucens. Hist. Eccles. Lib. xxiv. (Muratori S. R. I. XI. 1229-30).—
2S2 POLITICAL HERESY. — THE STATE.
The agreement duly executed between Clement and Philippe
bore that the Templars should be delivered to the pope, but be
guarded in his name by the king ; that their trials should be pro-
ceeded with by the bishops in their several dioceses, to whom, at
the special and earnest request of the king, the inquisitors were
adjoined — but de Molay and the Preceptors of the East, of Xor-
mandy, Poitou, and Provence, were reserved for the papal judg-
ment ; the property was to be placed in the hands of commission-
ers named by the pope and bishops, to whom the king was secretly
to add appointees of his own, but he was to pledge himself in writ-
ing that it should be employed solely for the Holy Land. Clement
assumed that the fate of the Order, as an institution, was too
weighty a question to be decided without the intervention of a
general council, and it was decided to call one in October, 1310.
The Cardinal of Palestrina was named as the papal representative
in charge of the persons of the Templars — a duty which he speed-
ily fulfilled by transferring them to the king under condition that
they should be held at the disposition of the Church. Clement
performed his part of the bargain by removing, July 5, the sus-
pension of the inquisitors and bishops, and restoring their jurisdic-
tion in the matter. Directions were sent at the same time to each
of the bishops in France to associate with himself two cathedral
canons, two Dominicans, and two Franciscans, and proceed with
the trials of the individual Templars within his diocese, admitting
inquisitors to participate at will, but taking no action against the
Order as a whole ; all persons were ordered, under pain of excom-
munication, to arrest Templars and deliver them to the inquisitors
or episcopal officials, and Philippe furnished twenty copies of royal
letters commanding his subjects to restore to the papal deputies
all property, real and personal, of the Order.*
Joann. de S.Victor (Bouquet, XXL 650). — Raynouard, pp. 44-5, 245-52.— Du Puy,
pp. 13-14. — Schottmuller, op. cit. II. 13 sqq. — Bull. Faciem misericordiam, 12
Aug. 1808 (Rymer, II. 101.— Mag. Bull. Rom. IX. 136).
* Du Puy, pp. 15-17, 20, 39, 86, 107-8, 118-19, 121-22, 125.— Contin. Nangiac.
ann. 1308.— Raynouard, pp. 46, 49. — Joann. de S. Victor (Bouquet, XXI. 651).—
D'Achery Spicileg. II. 200.
Guillaume de Plaisian, who had been Philippe's chief instrument in these
transactions, received special marks of Clement's favor by briefs dated August
5 (Regest. Clement. PP. V. T. III. pp. 216, 227).
THE TEMPLARS. 283
Although Clement declared in his bulls to Europe that Philippe
had manifested his disinterestedness by surrendering all the Tem-
plar property, the question was one which gave rise to a good deal
of skilful fencing on both sides. It is not worth while to pursue
the affair in its details, but we shall see how in the end Philippe
successfully cheated his partner in the game and retained the con-
trol which he apparently gave up.*
The rival powers having thus come to an understanding about
their victims, proceedings were resumed with fresh energy. Clem-
ent made up for his previous hesitation with ample show of zeal.
De Molay and the chief officials with him were detained at Chinon
until the middle of August, when the Cardinals of SS. Nereo and
Achille, of S. Ciriaco and of S. Angelo, were sent thither to ex-
amine them. These reported, August 20, to Philippe, that on the
17th and following days they had interrogated the Grand Master,
the Master of Cyprus, the Visitor of France, and the Preceptors of
Normandy and Poitou, who had confirmed their previous confes-
sions and had humbly asked for absolution and reconciliation,
which had been duly given them, and the king is asked to pardon
them. There are two things noteworthy in this which illustrate
the duplicity pervading the whole affair. In the papal bulls of
August 12, five davs before this examination was commenced, its
results are fully set forth, with the assertion that the confessions
were free and spontaneous. Moreover, when, in November, 1309,
this bull was read over by the papal commission to de Molay, on
hearing: its recital of Avhat he was said to have confessed he was
stupefied, and, crossing himself twice, said he wished to God the
* Bull. Faciensmisericordiam.—RsLynaAd. aim. 1309, No. 3.— Du Puy, pp. 64-5,
86-88, 127, 207-9.— Proces des Templiers I. 50-2.— Raynouard, p. 47.— Regest.
Clement. PP. V. T. IV. pp. 433-4.
Clement appointed six curators in France to look after the property for the
Holy See. By letters of January 5, 1309, he gave them an allowance from the
Templai property of forty sous parisis of good money each for every night which
they might have to spend away from home, at the same time cautioning them
that they must not fraudulently leave their houses without necessity (Regest.
T. IV. p. 439). A brief of January 28, 1310, transferring from the Bishop of
Vaison to the canon, Gerard de Bussy, the custody of certain Templar houses,
shows that Clement succeeded in obtaining possession of a portion (lb. T. V.
p. 56).
2S4 POLITICAL HERESY. — THE STATE.
custom of the Saracens and Tartars were observed towards persons
so perverse, for they beheaded or cut in two those who thus per-
verted the truth. He might have said more had not Guillaume de
Plaisian, the royal agent, who pretended to be his friend, cautioned
him as to the risk which he ran in thus constructivelv retracting
his confession, and he contented himself with asking for time for
consideration.*
On August 12 Clement issued a series of bulls which res:u-
lated the methods of procedure in the case, and showed that he was
prepared fully to perform his part of the agreement with Philippe.
The bull Faciens raise ricordiam, addressed to the prelates of Chris-
tendom, recited at great length the proceedings thus far taken
against the accused, and the guilt which they had spontaneously
acknowledged ; it directed the bishops, in conjunction with inquisi-
torial commissioners appointed by the pope, to summon all Tem-
plars before them and make inquisition concerning them. After
this provincial councils were to be summoned, where the guilt or
innocence of the individuals was to be determined, and in all the
proceedings the local inquisitors had a right to take part. The
results of the inquisitions, moreover, were to be promptly trans-
mitted to the pope. With this was enclosed a long and elaborate
series of articles on which the accused were to be examined — arti-
cles drawn up in Paris by the royal officials — and the whole was
ordered to be published in the vernacular in all parish churches.
The bull Regnans m caelis, addressed to all princes and prelates,
repeated the narrative part of the other, and ended by convoking,
for October 1, 1310, a general council at Tienne. to decide as to
the fate of the Order, to consult as to the recovery of the Holy
Land, and to take such action as might be required for the refor-
mation of the Church. By another bull, Faciens miser icordiam,
dated August 8, a formal summons was issued to all and singular
of the Templars to appear before the council, personally or by pro-
curators, on a certain day, to answer to the charges against the
Order, and the Cardinal of Palestrina, who was in charge of them,
was ordered to produce de Molay and the Preceptors of France,
Normandy, Poitou, Aquitaine, and Provence to receive sentence.
This was the simplest requirement of judicial procedure, and the
* Du Puy pp. 33-4, 133. — Bull. Facicm miser icordiam. — Procfes, I. 34-5.
THE TEMPLARS. 285
manner in which it was subsequently eluded forms one of the dark-
est features in the whole transaction. Finally there were other
bulls elaborately providing for the payment of the papal commis-
sioners and inquisitors, and ordering the Templar possessions ev-
ery „rhere to be sequestrated to await the result of the trial, and
to be devoted to the Holy Land in case of condemnation. Much, it
was stated, had already been wickedly seized and appropriated, and
all persons were summoned to make restitution, under pain of ex-
communication. All debtors to the Order were summoned to pay,
and all persons cognizant of such debts or of stolen property were
required to give information. The series of bulls was completed
by one of December 30, to be read in all churches, declaring all
Templars to be suspect of heresy, ordering their capture as such
and delivery to the episcopal ordinaries, and forbidding all poten-
tates and prelates from harboring them or showing them any aid
or favor, under pain of excommunication and interdict. At the
same time another bull was directed to all the princes of Christen-
dom, commanding them to seize any Templars who might as yet
not have been arrested.*
The prosecution of the Templars throughout Europe was thus
organized. Even such distant points as Achaia, Corsica, and Sar-
dinia were not neglected. The large number of special inquisitors
to be appointed was a work of time, and the correspondence be-
tween Philippe and Clement on the subject shows that they vir-
tually were selected by the king. In France the work of prose-
cution was speedily set on foot, and, after a respite of some six
months, the Templars found themselves transferred from the im-
provised inquisitorial tribunals set on foot by Frere Guillaume to
the episcopal courts as provided by Clement. In every diocese
* Rymer,III. 101.— Mag. Bull. Rom. IX. 134, 136.— Harduin. VII. 1283, 1289,
1321, 1353.— Schmidt, Pabstliche Urkunden und Regesten, Halle, 1886, pp.
71-2.— Raynald. aim. 1308, No. 8.— Contin. Guill. Nangiac. ann. 1308.— Ray-
nouard, p. 50.— Regest. Clement. PP. V. T. III. pp. 281 sqq., pp. 363 sqq., 386
sqq.; T. IV. pp. 3, 276 sqq., 479-82.
The Master of England and the Master of Germany were reserved for papal
judgment. The bull Faciens misericordiam, addressed to Germany, contained no
command to assemble provincial councils (Harduin. VII. 1353).
In spite of all that had occurred, this bull seems to have taken the public by
surprise outside of France. Walter of Hemingford calls it " uullam horribilem
contra Templarios " (Chron. Ed. 1849, II. 279).
2S6 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE STATE.
the bishops were soon busily at work. Curiously enough, some of
them doubted whether they could use torture, and applied for in-
structions, to which Clement answered that they were to be gov-
erned by the written law, which removed their misgivings. The
papal instructions indicate that these proceedings only concerned
those Templars who had not passed through the hands of Frere
Guillaume and his commissioners, but there seems to have been
little distinction observed as to this. Clement urged forward the
proceedings with little regard to formality, and authorized the
bishops to act outside of their respective dioceses, and without
respect to the place of origin of the accused. The sole object
evidently was to extract from them satisfactory confessions, as
a preparation for the provincial councils which were to be sum-
moned for their final judgment. Those who had already confessed
were not likely to retract. Before the papal commission in 1310,
Jean de Cochiac exhibited a letter from Philippe de Yohet and
Jean de Jamville, the papal and royal custodians of the prisoners,
to those confined at Sens at the time the Bishop of Orleans was
sent there to examine them (the archbishopric of Sens was then
vacant), warning them that those who revoked the confessions
made before " los quizitor " would be burned as relapsed. Yohet,
when summoned before the commission, admitted the seal to be
his, but denied authorizing the letter, and the commission prudent-
ly abstained from pushing the investigation further. The nervous
anxiety manifested by most of those brought before the commis-
sion that their statements should accord with what they had said
before the bishops, shows that they recognized the danger which
they incurred.*
The treatment of those who refused to confess varied with
the temper of the bishops and their adjuncts. The records of
their tribunals have mostly disappeared, and we are virtually left
to gather what we can from the utterances of a few witnesses
who made to the commission chance allusions to their former ex-
periences. Yet the proceedings before the Bishop of Clermont
would show that they were not in all cases treated with undue
harshness. He had sixty-nine Templars, of whom forty confessed,
* Du Puy, pp. 110, 125.— Raynouard, p. 130.— Regest. Clement. PP. Y T. IV.
pp. 453-55, 457-8.— Proces, I. 71-2, 128, 132, 135, 463, 511, 540, etc.
THE TEMPLARS. 287
and twenty-nine refused to admit any evil in the Order. Then he
assembled them and divided them into the two groups. The re-
cusants declared that they adhered to their assertion, and that if
they should subsequently confess through fear of torture, prison,
or other affliction, they protested that they should not be believed,
and that it should not prejudice them, nor does it appear that any
constraint was afterwards put upon them. The others were asked
whether they had any defence to offer, or whether they were ready
for definitive sentence, when they unanimously declared that they
had nothing to offer nor wished to hear their sentence, but sub-
mitted themselves to the mercy of the Church. What that mercy
was we shall see hereafter. All bishops were not as mild as he
of Clermont, but in the fragmentary recitals before the commis-
sion it is not always easy to distinguish the action of the episco-
pal tribunals from that of Frere Guillaume's inquisitors. A few
instances will suffice to show how, between the two, testimony
was obtained against the Order. Jean de Rompreye, a husband-
man, declared that he knew nothing but good of the Order, al-
though he had confessed otherwise before the Bishop of Orleans
after being thrice tortured. Robert Yigier, a serving brother, like-
wise denied the accusations, though he had confessed them before
the Bishop of Nevers at Paris, on account of the fierceness of the
torture, under which he understood that three of his comrades,
Gautier, Henri, and Chanteloup, had died. Bernard de Yado, a
priest, had been tortured by fire applied to the soles of the feet to
such an extent that a few days afterwards the bones of his heels
dropped out, in testimony of which he exhibited the bones. Nine-
teen brethren from Perigord had confessed before the Bishop of
Perigord through torture and starvation — one of them had been
kept for six months on bread and water, without shoes or upper
clothing. Guillaume d'Erre, when brought before the Bishop of
Saintes, had denied all the charges, but after being put on bread
and water and threatened with torture, had confessed to renounc-
ing Christ and spitting at the cross — a confession which he now
retracts. Thomas de Pamplona, under many tortures inflicted on
him at St. Jean d'Angely, had confirmed the confession made by
de Molay, and then, upon being put upon bread and water, had
confessed before the Bishop of Saintes to spitting at the cross, all
of which he now retracts. These instances might be multiplied
288 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE STATE.
out of the few who had the hardihood to incur the risk of martyr-
dom attendant upon withdrawing their confessions. Indeed, in
the universal terror impressed on the friendless and defenceless
wretches, we cannot condemn those who yielded, and can only ad-
mire the constancy of those who endured the torture and braved
the stake in defence of the Order. What was the general feeling
among them was voiced by Aymon de Barbara, who had thrice
been tortured, and had for nine weeks been kept on bread and
water. He pitifully said that he had suffered in body and soul,
but as for retracting his confession, he would not do so as long as
he was in prison. The mental struggles which the poor creatures
endured are well illustrated by Jean de Cormele, Preceptor of
Moissac, who when brought before the commission hesitated and
would not describe the ceremonies at his own reception, though
he declared that he had seen nothing wrong at the reception of
others. The recollection of the tortures which he had endured in
Paris, in which he had lost four teeth, completely unnerved him,
and he begged to have time for consideration. He was given
until the next day, and when he reappeared his resolution had
broken down. He confessed the whole catalogue of villainies ; and
when asked if he had consulted any one, denied it, but said that
he had requested a priest to say for him a mass of the Holy Ghost
that God might direct him what to do.*
These instances will illustrate the nature of the work in which
the whole episcopate of France was engaged during the remainder
of the year 1308 and through 1309 and 1310. All this, however,
concerned merely the members of the Order as individuals. The
fate of the Templar possessions depended upon the judgment to
be rendered on the Order as a body corporate, and for this pur-
pose Clement had assigned for it a day on which it was to appear
by its syndics and procurators before the Council of Yienne, to
put in its defence and show cause why it should not be abolished.
Seeing that the officers and members were scattered in prison
throughout Europe, this was a manifest impossibility, and some
method was imperatively required by which they could, at least
constructively, be represented, if only to hear their sentence.
* Raynouard, pp. 52-3. — Procfcs, I. 40, 75, 230, 506-9, 511-14, 520-1, 527-8;
II. 13, 18.
THE TEMPLARS. 289
Among the bulls of August 12, 1308, therefore, there was one
creating a commission, with the Archbishop of Narbonne at its
head, authorized to summon before it all the Templars of France,
to examine them, and to report the result. Subsequent bulls of
May, 1309, directed the commission to set to work, and notified
Philippe concerning it. August 8, 1309, the commission assem-
bled in the abbey of Sainte-Genevieve, and by letters addressed
to all the archbishops of the kingdom cited all Templars to ap-
pear before them on the first working-day after Martinmas, and
the Order itself to appear by its syndics and procurators at the
Council of Yienne, to receive such sentence as God should decree.
On the appointed day, November 12, the commissioners reassem-
bled, but no Templars appeared. For a week they met daily, and
daily the form was gone through of a proclamation by the ap-
paritor that if any one wished to appear for the Order or its mem-
bers the commission was ready to listen to him kindly, but with-
out result. On examining the replies of the prelates they were
found to have imperfectly fulfilled their duty. Philippe evident-
ly regarded the whole proceeding with distrust, and was not in-
clined to aid it. A somewhat peremptory communication on No-
vember 18 was addressed to the Bishop of Paris, explaining that
their proceedings were not against individuals, but against the
wmole Order ; that no one was to be forced to appear, but that all
who so chose must be allowed to come. This brought the bishop
before them on November 22, wTith explanations and apologies ;
and a summons to Philippe de Vohet and Jean de Jamville, the
papal and royal custodians of the Templars, brought those officials
to promise obedience. Yet the obstacles to the performance of
their task did not disappear. On the 22d they were secretly in-
formed that some persons had come to Paris in lay garments to
defend the Order, and had been thrown in prison. Thereupon
they sent for Jean de Plublaveh, prevot of the Chatelet, who said
that by royal order he had arrested seven men said to be Tem-
plars in disguise, wTho had come with money to engage advocates
in defence of the Order, but on torturing two of them he had
found this not to be the case. The matter proved to be of little
significance except as manifesting the purpose of the king to con-
trol the action of the commission.*
* Joann. de S. Victor (Bouquet, XXI. 654).— Proces, 1. 1-31.
III.— 19
290 POLITICAL HERESY,— TIIE STATE.
At length the commission succeeded in securing the presence
of de Molay, of Hngues de Peraud, and of some of the brethren
confined in Paris. De Molay said he was not wise and learned
enough to defend the Order, but he would hold himself vile and
miserable if he did not attempt it. Yet he was a prisoner and
penniless ; he had not four deniers to spend, and only a poor serv-
ing brother with whom to advise ; he prayed to have aid and coun-
sel, and he would do his best. The commissioners reminded him
that trials for heresy were not conducted according to legal forms,
that advocates were not admitted, and thev cautioned him as to
the risk he incurred in defending the Order after the confession
which he had made. Kindly they read over to him the report of
the cardinals as to his confession at Chinon ; and on his manifest-
ing indignation and astonishment, Guillaume de Plaisian, who
seems to have been watching the proceedings on the part of the
king, gave him, as we have already seen, another friendly caution
which closed his lips. He asked for delay, and when he reap-
peared Guillaume de Xogaret was there to take advantage of any
imprudence. From the papal letters which had been read to him
he learned that the pope had reserved him and the other chiefs of
the Order for special judgment, and he therefore asked to have
the opportunity of appearing before the papal tribunal without
delay. The shrewdness of this device thus made itself apparent.
It separated the leaders from the rest ; de Molay, Hugues de Pe-
raud, and Geoffroi de Gonneville were led to hope for special con-
sideration, and selfishly abandoned their followers. As for the
brethren, their answers to the commission were substantiallv that
of Geraud de Caux — he was a simple knight, without horse, arms,
or land ; he knew not how, and could not defend the Order.*
By this time Philippe seems to have been satisfied that no
harm could come from the operations of the commission. His op-
position disappeared, and he graciously lent them his assistance.
November 28, a second summons was sent to the bishops threaten-
ing them with papal indignation for a continuance of their neglect,
and, what was far more efficacious, it was accompanied with orders
from Philippe directing his jailers to afford to the episcopal offi-
cials access to the imprisoned Templars, while the baillis were
* Procfcs, I. 28, 29, 41-5, 88.
THE TEMPLARS. 291
instructed to send to Paris, under sure guard, all Templars desir-
ing to defend their Order.*
February 3, 1310, was the day named in this new citation. By
the 5th Templars began to pour in, nearly all eager to defend
their Order. They accumulated until the commission was embar-
rassed how to deal with them, and finally, on March 28, five hun-
dred and forty-six who had offered to defend were assembled in
the garden of the episcopal palace, where the commissioners ex-
plained to them what was proposed, and suggested that they
should nominate six or eight or ten of their number to act as pro-
curators ; they would not again have an opportunity of meeting,
and the commission would proceed on the 31st, but the procura-
tors should have access to them in their several prisons, and should
agree with them as to what defence should be offered. A pro-
miscuous crowd, whose differences of dialect rendered intercom-
munication impossible, abandoned by their natural leaders and
thus suddenly brought together, was not fitted for deliberation
on so delicate an emergency. Many hesitated about acting with-
out orders from the Master, for all initiative on the part of sub-
ordinates was strictly forbidden by the Rule. The commissioners
seem to have been sincerely desirous of getting the matter into
some sort of shape, and finally, on the 31st, they ordered their
notaries to visit the houses in which the Templars were confined
and report their wishes and conclusions. This was a process
requiring time, and the reports of the notaries after making
their daily rounds are pitiful enough. The wretched prisoners
floundered helplessly when called upon to resolve as to their
action. Most of them declared the Order to be pure and holy,
but knew not what to do in the absence of their superiors.
There was a general clamor, often on bended knees, for readmis-
sion to the sacraments. Many begged to be assured that when
they died they should be buried in consecrated ground ; others
offered to pay for a chaplain out of the miserable allowance doled
to them ; some asked that the allowance be increased, others that
they should have clothes to cover their nakedness. They were
urgent in the impossible request that they should have experts
and learned men to advise with and appear for them, for they
* Procfcs, I. 47-53.
292 POLITICAL HERESY. — THE STATE.
were simple and illiterate, chained in prison and unable to act ; and
they further begged that security should be given to witnesses, as
all who had confessed were threatened with burning if they should
retract. A. paper presented April 4 by those confined in the house
of the Abbot of Tiron is eloquent in its suggestiveness as to their
treatment, for the houses in which they were quartered had appar-
ently taken them on speculation. They assert the purity of the
Order and their readiness to defend it as well as men can who are
fettered in prison and pass the night in dark fosses. They further
complain of the insufficiency of their allowance of twelve deniers
a day, for they pay three deniers each per day for their beds ; for
hire of kitchen, napery, and cloths, two sols six deniers per week ;
two sols for taking off and replacing their fetters when they
appear before the commission ; for washing, eighteen deniers a
fortnight ; wood and candles, four deniers a day, and ferriage across
from iSotre Dame, sixteen deniers. It is evident that the poor
creatures were exploited relentlessly."
The outcome of the matter was that on April 7 nine repre-
sentatives presented a paper in the name of all, declaring that
without authority from the Master and Convent they could not
appoint procurators, but they offer themselves one and all in
defence of the Order, and ask to be present at the council or wher-
ever it is on trial. They declare the charges to be horrible and
impossible lies fabricated by apostates and fugitives expelled for
crime from the Order, confirmed by torturing those who uphold
the truth, and encouraging liars with recompenses and great prom-
ises. It is wonderful, they say, to see greater faith reposed in
those corrupted thus by worldly advantage than in those who,
like the martyrs of Christ, have died in torture with the palm of
martyrdom, and in the living who, for conscience' sake, have suf-
fered and daily suffer in their dungeons so many torments, tribula-
tions, and miseries. In the universal terror prevailing they pray
that when the brethren are examined there may be present no
laymen or others whom they may fear, and that security may be
* Proces, I. 103-51. — It must be borne in mind that the allowance was in the
fearfully debased currency of Philippe le Bel. According to a document of 1318
the livre Tournois still was to the sterling pound as 1 to 4-J- (Olim, III. 1279).
Other Templars subsequently offered to defend the Order, making five hun-
dred and seventy-three up to May 2.
THE TEMPLARS. 293
assured them, for all who have confessed are daily threatened with
burning if they retract. In reply the commissioners disavowed
responsibility for their ill-usage, and promised to ask that they be
humanely treated in accordance with the orders of the Cardinal
of Palestrina, to whom they had been committed by the pope.
The Grand Master, they added, had been urged to defend the
Order, but had declined, and claimed that he was reserved for the
pope.*
Having thus given the Templars a nominal opportunity for
defence, the commissioners proceeded to take testimony, appoint-
ing four of the representatives, Renaud de Provins, Preceptor of
Orleans, Pierre de Boulogne, procurator of the Order in the papal
court, and Geoffroi de Chambonnet and Bertrand de Sartiges,
knights, to be present at the swearing of the witnesses, and to do
what might be requisite without constituting them formal defend-
ers of the Order. These four on April 13 presented another paper
in which, after alluding to the tortures employed to extort confes-
sions, they stated it to be a notorious fact that to obtain testimony
from Templars sealed royal letters had been given them promising
them liberty and large pensions for life, and telling them that the
Order was permanently abolished. This was evidently intended
as a protest to pave the way for disabling the adverse witnesses,
which, as we have seen, was the only defence in the inquisitorial
process, and with the same object they also asked for the names of
all witnesses. They did not venture to ask for a copy of the evi-
dence, but they earnestly requested that it should be kept secret,
to avert the danger that might otherwise threaten the witnesses.
Subject to the interruption of the Easter solemnities, testimony,
mostly adverse to the Order, continued to be taken up to May 9,
from witnesses apparently carefully selected for the purpose. On
Sunday, May 10, the commissioners were suddenly called together,
at the request of Renaud de Provins and his colleagues, to receive
the startling announcement that the provincial Council of Sens,
which had been hastily assembled at Paris, proposed to prosecute
all the Templars who had offered to defend the Order. Most of
these had previously confessed; they had heroically taken their
lives in their hands when, by asserting the purity of the Order,
* Procfes, I. 165-72.
294: POLITICAL HERESY.— THE STATE.
they had constructively revoked their confessions. The four
Templars therefore appealed to the commissioners for protection,
as the action of the council would fatally interfere with the work
in hand; they demanded apostoli, and that their persons and
rights and the whole Order should be placed under the guardian-
ship of the Holy See, and time and money be allowed to prosecute
the appeal. They further asked the commissioners to notify the
Archbishop of Sens to take no action while the present examina-
tion was in progress, and that they be sent before him with one or
two notaries to make a protest, as they can find no one who dares
to draw up such an instrument for them. The commissioners
were sorely perplexed and debated the matter until evening, when
they recalled the Templars to say that while they heartily com-
passionated them they could do nothing, for the Archbishop of
Sens and the council were acting under powers delegated by the
pope.*
It was no part of Philippe's policy to allow the Order any
opportunity to be heard. The sudden rally of nearly six hundred
members, after their chiefs had been skilfully detached from
them, and their preparations for defence at the approaching coun-
cil promised a struggle which he proceeded to crush at the outset
with his customary unscrupulous energy. The opportunity was
favorable, for after long effort he had just obtained from Clement
the archbishopric of Sens (of which Paris was a suffragan see)
for a youthful creature of his own, Philippe de Marigny, brother
of his minister Enguerrand, who took possession of the dignity
only on April 5. The bull Faciens misericordiam had prescribed
that, after the bishops had completed their inquests, provincial
councils were to be called to sit in judgment on the individual
brethren. In pursuance of this, the king through his archbishops
was master of the situation. Provincial councils were suddenly
called, that for Sens to meet at Paris, for Reims at Senlis, for
Xormandy at Pont de l'Arche, and for Xarbonne at Carcassonne,
and a demonstration was organized which should paralyze at once
and forever all thought of further opposition to his will. No time
was wasted in any pretence of judicial proceedings, for the canon
law provided that relapsed heretics were to be condemned with-
* Procfcs, I. 173, 201-4, 259-64.
THE TEMPLARS.
295
out a hearing. On the 11th the Council of Sens was opened at
Paris. On the 12th, while the commissioners were engaged in
taking testimony, word was brought them that fifty-four of those
who had offered to defend the Order had been condemned as re-
lapsed heretics for retracting their confessions, and were to be
burned that day. Hastily they sent to the council Philippe de
Yohet, the papal custodian of the Templars, and Amis, Archdeacon
of Orleans, to ask for delay. Yohet, they said, and many others
asserted that the Templars who died in prison declared on peril
of their souls that the crimes alleged were false; Eenaud de
Provins and his colleagues had appealed before them from the
council ; if the proposed executions took place the functions of the
commission would be impeded, for the witnesses that day and the
day before were crazed with terror and wholly unfit to give evi-
dence. The envoys hurried to the council-hall, where they were
treated with contempt and told that it was impossible that the
commission could have sent such a message. The fifty-four
martyrs were piled in wagons and carried to the fields near the
convent of S. Antoine, where they were slowly tortured to death
with fire, refusing all offers of pardon for confession, and manifest-
ing a constancy which, as a contemporary tells us, placed their
souls in great peril of damnation, for it led the people into the
error of believing them innocent. The council continued its Avork,
and a few days later burned four more Templars, so that if there
were any who still proposed to defend the Order they might
recognize what would be their fate. It ordered the bones of Jean
de Tourne, former treasurer of the Temple, to be exhumed and
burned; those who confessed and adhered to their confessions
were reconciled to the Church and liberated ; those who persisted
in refusing to confess were condemned to perpetual prison. This
was rather more humane than the regular inquisitorial practice,
but it suited the royal policy of the moment. A few weeks later,
at Senlis, the Council of Reims burned nine more ; at Pont de
l'Arche three were burned, and a number at Carcassonne.*
* Fisquet, La France Pontificate, Sens, p. 68. — Proces, I. 274-5, 281, — Contin.
Chron.G. de Fracheto (Bouquet, XXI. 33).— Chron. Anon. (Bouquet, XXI. 140).—
Amalr. Auger. Hist. Pontif. (Eccard II. 1810). — Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann.
1307.— Bern. Guidon. Flor. Chron. (Bouquet, XXI. 719).— Joann. de S. Victor
296 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE STATE.
This ferocious expedient accomplished its purpose. When, on
the day after the executions at Paris, May 13, the commission
opened its session, the first witness, Aimery de Villiers, threw
himself on his knees, pale and desperately frightened ; beating his
breast and stretching forth his hands to the altar, he invoked sud-
den death and perdition to body and soul if he lied. He declared
that all the crimes imputed to the Order were false, although he
had, under torture, confessed to some of them. When he had yes-
terday seen his fifty -four brethren carried in wagons to be burned,
and heard that they had been burned, he felt that he could not
endure it and would confess to the commissioners or to any one
else whatever might be required of him, even that he had slain the
Lord. In conclusion he adjured the commissioners and the nota-
ries not to reveal what he had said to his jailers, or to the royal
officials, for he would be burned like the fifty-four. Then a pre-
vious witness, Jean Bert-rand, came before the commission to sup-
plicate that his deposition be kept secret on account of the danger
impending over him. Seeing all this, the commission felt that
during this general terror it would be wise to suspend its sittings,
and it did so. It met again on the 18th to reclaim fruitlessly from
the Archbishop of Sens, Penaud de Provins, who had been put on
trial before the council. Pierre de Boulogne was likewise snatched
away and could not be obtained again. Many of the Templars
who had offered to defend the Order made haste to withdraw, and
all effort to provide for it an organized hearing before the Council
of Yienne was perforce abandoned. Whether Clement was privy
to this high-handed interruption of the functions of his commission
is perhaps doubtful, but he did nothing to rehabilitate it, and his
quiescence rendered him an accomplice. He had only succeeded
(Bouquet, XXL 654-55). — Contin. Guill. Nangiac. ann. 1310. — Grandes Chro-
niques,V. 187.— Chron. Cornel. Zantfliet ann. 1310 (Martene Ampl. Coll. V. 158).—
Bessin, Concil. Rotomagens. p. iii. — Raynouard, pp. 118-20.
It was not all bishops who were ready to accept the inquisitorial doctrine
that revocation of confession was equivalent to relapse. The question was dis-
cussed in the Council of Narbonne and decided in the negative. — Raynouard, p.
106.
The number of those who refused to confess was not insignificant. Some
papers respecting the expenses of detention of Templars at Senlis describe sixty-
five as not reconciled, who therefore cannot have confessed. — lb. p. 107.
THE TEMPLARS. 297
in betraying to a fiery death the luckless wretches whom he had
tempted to come forward.*
On April 4, by the bull Alma Mater, Clement had postponed
the Council of Yienne from October, 1310, until October, 1311, in
consequence of the inquisition against the Templars requiring more
time than had been expected. There was, therefore, no necessity
for haste on the part of the commission, and it adjourned until
November 3. Its members were long in getting together, and it
did not resume its sessions until December 17. Then Guillaume
de Chambonnet and Bertrand de Sartiges were brought before it,
when they protested that they could not act for the Order without
the aid of Renaud de Provins and Pierre de Boulogne. These, the
commission informed them, had solemnly renounced the defence
of the Order, had returned to their first confessions, and had been
condemned to perpetual imprisonment by the Council of Sens,
after which Pierre had broken jail and fled. The two knights
were offered permission to be present at the swearing of the wit-
nesses, with opportunity to file exceptions, but they declared them-
selves unfitted for the task and retired. Thus all pretence of
affording the Order a chance to be heard was abandoned, and the
subsequent proceedings of the commission became merely an ex
parte accumulation of adverse testimony. It sat until June, in-
dustriously hearing the witnesses brought before it ; but as those
were selected by Philippe de Yohet and Jean de Jamville, care
was evidently taken as to the character of the evidence that should
reach it. Most of the witnesses, in fact, had been reconciled to
the Church through confession, abjuration, and absolution, and no
longer belonged to the Order which they had abandoned to its
fate. Among the large number of Templars who had refused to
confess, only a few, and these apparently by accident, were allowed
to appear before it. There were also a few who dared to retract
what they had stated before the bishops, but with these slender ex-
ceptions all the evidence was adverse to the Order. In fact, it
frequently happened that witnesses were sworn who never reap-
peared to give their testimony, and that this was not accidental is
rendered probable by the fact that Renaud de Provins was one of
these. Finally, on June 5, the commission closed its labors and
* Procfes, I. 275-83.
298 POLITICAL HERESY. — THE STATE.
transmitted without comment to Clement its records as part of
the material to guide the judgment of the assembled Church at
the Council of Yienne.*
Before proceeding to the last scene of the drama at Yienne, it
is necessary to consider briefly the action taken with the Templars
outside of France. In England, Edward II., on October 30, 1307,
replied to Philippe's announcement of October 16, to the effect
that he and his council have given the most earnest attention to
the matter ; it has caused the greatest astonishment, and is sc
abominable as to be well-nigh incredible, and, to obtain further in-
formation, he had sent for his Seneschal of Agen. So strong were
his convictions and so earnest his desire to protect the threatened
Order that on December 4 he wrote to the Kings of Portugal, Cas-
tile, Aragon, and Xaples that the accusations must proceed from
cupidity and envy, and begging them to shut their ears to detrac-
tion and do nothing without deliberation, so that an Order so dis-
tinguished for purity and honor should not be molested until
legitimately convicted. Xot content with this, on the 10th he re-
plied to Clement that the reputation of the Templars in England
for purity and faith is such that he cannot, without further proof,
believe the terrible rumors about them, and he begs the pope to
resist the calumnies of envious and wicked men. In a few days,
however, he received Clement's bull of ^November 22, and could
no longer doubt the facts asserted by the head of Christendom.
He hastened to obey its commands, and on the 15th elaborate
orders were already prepared and sent out to all the sheriffs in
England, with minute instructions to capture all the Templars on
January 10, 1308, including directions as to the sequestration and
disposition of their property, and this was followed on the 20th by
* Harduin. VII. 1334.— Proces, I. 286-7 : II. 3-4, 269-73.— Raynouard, pp.
254-6. — A notarial attestation describes the voluminous record as consisting of
219 folios with forty lines to the page, equivalent to 17,520 lines.
How close a watch was kept on the witnesses is seen in the case of three,
Martin de Mont Richard, Jean Durand, and Jean de Ruaus, who, on March 22,
asserted that they knew of no evil in the Order. Two days later they are
brought back to say that they had lied through folly. When before their
bishops they had confessed to renouncing and spitting, and it was true. What
persuasions were applied to them during the interval no one can tell. — Proces,
II. 88-96, 107-9.
THE TEMPLARS. 299
similar commands to the English authorities in Ireland, Scotland,
and Wales. Possibly Edward's impending voyage to Boulogne to
marry Isabella, the daughter of Philippe le Bel, may have had
something to do with his sudden change of purpose.*
The seizure was made accordingly, and the Templars were kept
in honorable durance, not in prison, awaiting papal action ; for
there seems to have been no disposition on the part either of Church
or State to take the initiative. The delay was long, for though
commissions were issued August 12, 1308, to the papal inquisitors,
Sicard de Lavaur and the Abbot of Lagny, they did not start until
September, 1309, and on the 13th of that month the royal safe-
conducts issued for them show their arrival in England. Then in-
structions were sent out to arrest all Templars not yet seized and
gather them together in London, Lincoln, and York, for the ex-
aminations to be held, and the bishops of those sees were strictly
charged to be present throughout. Similar orders were sent to
Ireland and Scotland, where the inquisitors appointed delegates to
attend to the matter. It apparently was not easy to get the offi-
cials to do their duty, for December 14 instructions were required
to all the sheriffs to seize the Templars who were wandering in
secular habits throughout the land, and in the following March
and again in January, 1311, the Sheriff of York was scolded for al-
lowing those in his custody to wander abroad. Popular sympathy
evidently was with the inculpated brethren.f
At length, on October 20, 1309, the papal inquisitors and the
Bishop of London sat in the episcopal palace to examine the Tem-
plars collected in London. Interrogated singly on all the numer-
ous articles of accusation, they all asserted the innocence of the
Order. Outside witnesses were called in who mostly declared
their belief to the same effect, though some gave expression to
the vague popular rumors and scandalous stories suggested by the
secrecy of proceedings within the Order. The inquisitors were
nonplussed. They had come to a country whose laws did not rec-
ognize the use of torture, and without it they were powerless to
* Rymer, Foedera, III. 18, 34-7,43-6.
t Regest. Clement. PP. V. T. III. pp. 316, 477.— Rymer, Feed. III. 168-9, 173,
179-80, 182, 195, 203-4, 244.
The pay assigned to the inquisitors was three florins each per diem, to be
assessed on the Templar property (Regest. ubi sup.).
300 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE STATE.
accomplish the work for which they had been sent. In their dis-
gust they finally applied to the king, and on December 15 they
obtained from him an order to the custodians of the prisoners
to permit the inquisitors and episcopal ordinaries to do with the
bodies of the Templars what they pleased, " in accordance with
ecclesiastical law" — ecclesiastical law, by the hideous perversion of
the times, having come to mean the worst of abuses, from which
secular law still shrank. Either the jailers or the episcopal offi-
cials interposed difficulties, for the mandate was repeated March
1, 1310, and again March 8, with instructions to report the cause
if the previous one had not been obeyed. Still no evidence worth
the trouble was gained, though the examinations were prolonged
through the winter and spring until May 24, when three captured
fugitives were induced by means easily guessed to confess what was
wanted, of which use was made to the utmost. At length Clement
grew impatient under this lack of result. On August 6 he wrote
to Edward that it was reported that he had prohibited the use of
torture as contrary to the laws of the kingdom, and that the in-
quisitors were thus powerless to extract confessions. 2so law or
usage, he said, could be permitted to override the canons provided
for such cases, and Edward's counsellors and officials who were
guilty of thus impeding the Inquisition were liable to the penal-
ties provided for that serious offence, while the king himself was
warned to consider whether his position comported with his honor
and safetv, and was offered remission of his sins if he would with-
draw from it — perhaps the most suggestive sale of an indulgence
on record. Similar letters at the same time were sent to all the
bishops of England, who were scolded for not having already re-
moved the impediment, as they were in duty bound to do. Under
this impulsion Edward. August 20, again ordered that the bishops
and inquisitors should be allowed to employ ecclesiastical law, and
this was repeated October 6 and 23, Xovember 22, and April 28,
1311 — in the last instances the word torture being used, and in all
of them the king being careful to explain that what he does is
through reverence for the Holy See. August 18, 1311, similar in-
structions were sent to the Sheriff of York.*
* Wilkins. Coucil. Mag. Brit. II. 329-92. — Rymer, III. 195, 202-3, 224-5,
227-32, 2G0, 274.— Regest. Clement. PP. V. T. V. pp. 455-7.
THE TEMPLARS. 301
Thus for once the papal Inquisition founjd a foothold in Eng-
land, but apparently its methods were too repugnant to the spirit of
the nation to be rewarded with complete success. In spite of ex-
aminations prolonged for more than eighteen months, the Tem-
plars could not be convicted. The most that could be accomplished
was, that in provincial councils held in London and York in the
spring and summer of 1311, they were brought to admit that they
were so defamed for heresy that they could not furnish the purga-
tion required by law ; they therefore asked for mercy and prom-
ised to perform what penance might be enjoined on them. Some
of them, moreover, submitted to a form of abjuration. The coun-
cils ordered them scattered among different monasteries to perform
certain penance until the Holy See should decide as to the future
of the Order. This was the final disposition of the Templars in
England. A liberal provision of fourpence a day was made for
their support, while two shillings was assigned to William de la
More, the Master of England, and on his death it was continued to
Humbert Blanc, the Preceptor of Auvergne, who, fortunately for
himself, was in England at the time of arrest, and was caught
there. This shows that they were not regarded as criminals, and
the testimony of Walsingham is that in the monasteries to which
they were assigned they comported themselves piously and right-
eously in every respect. In Ireland and Scotland their examina-
tions failed to procure any proof against the Order, save the vague
conjectures and stories of outside witnesses industriously gathered
together.*
In Lorraine, as soon as news came of the seizure in Erance, the
Preceptor of Yillencourt ordered the brethren under him to shave
and abandon their mantles, which was virtually releasing them
from the Order. Duke Thiebault followed the exterminating pol-
* Wilkins, II. 314, 373-83, 394-400.— Rymer, III. 295, 327, 334, 349, 472-3.—
Proces des Templiers, II. 130.— D'Argentre" I. I. 280.
That the allowance for the Templars was liberal is shown by that made for
the Bishop of Glasgow when confined, in 1312, in the Castle of Porchester. His
per diem was 6d., that for his valet 3d., for his chaplain five farthings, and the same
for his servant (Rymer, III. 363). The wages of the janitor of the Temple in Lon-
don was 2d., by a charter of Edward II. in 1314 (Wilcke, II. 498).
302 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE STATE.
icy of Philippe with complete success. A large number of the
Templars were burned, and he managed to secure most of their
property.*
In Germany our knowledge of what took place is somewhat
fragmentary. The Teutonic Order afforded a career for the Ger-
man chivalry, and the Templars were by no means so numerous
as in France, their fate was not so dramatic, and it attracted com-
paratively little attention from the chroniclers. One annalist in-
forms us that they were destroyed with the assent of the Emperor
Henry on account of their collusion with the Saracens in Pales-
tine and Egypt, and their preparation for establishing a new em-
pire for themselves among the Christians, which shows how little
impression on the popular mind was made by the assertion of
their heresies. For the most part, indeed, the action taken de-
pended upon the personal views of the princely prelates who pre-
sided over the great archbishoprics. Burchard III. of Magdeburg
was the first to act. Obliged to visit the papal court in 1307 to
obtain the pallium, he returned in May, 1308, with orders to seize
all the Templars in his province; and as he was already hostile to
them, he obeyed with alacrity. There were but four houses in his
territories : on these and their occupants he laid his hands, leading
to a long series of obscure quarrels, in which he incurred excom-
munication from the Bishop of Halberstadt, which Clement hast-
ened to remove ; by burning some of the more obstinate brethren,
moreover, he involved himself in war with their kindred, in which
he fared badly. As late as 1318 the Hospitallers are found com-
plaining to John XXII. that Templars were still in possession of
the greater portion of their property, f
The bull Faciens misericordiam of August, 1308, sent to the
German prelates, reserved, with Clement's usual policy, the Grand
Preceptor of Germany for papal judgment. With the exception
of Magdeburg, its instructions for active measures received slack
* Proces, II. 267.— Calmet, Hist. Gen. de Lorraine, II. 436.
t Gassari Armal. Augstburgens. arm. 1312 (Menken. Scnptt. T. 1473). — Tor-
quati Series Pontif. Magdeburg, ann. 1307-8 (Menken. III. 390). — Raynald. ann.
1310, No. 40.— Cbron. Episc. Merseburgens. c. xxvii. § 3 (Ludewig IV. 408). —
Bothonis Chron. ann. 1311 (Leibnitz III. 374).— Wilcke. II. 242, 246, 324-5.—
Regest. Clement. PP. V. T. V. p. 271.— Schmidt, Pabstliche Urkunden und Re-
gesten, Halle, 1886, p. 77.— Havemann, p. 333.
THE TEMPLARS. 393
obedience. It was not to much purpose that, on December 30 of
the same year, he wrote to the Duke of Austria to arrest all the
Templars in his dominions, and commissioned the Ordinaries of
Mainz, Treves, Cologne, Magdeburg, Strassburg, and Constance as
special inquisitors within their several dioceses, while he sent the
Abbot of Crudacio as inquisitor for the rest of Germany, ordering
the prelates to pay him five gold florins a day. It was not until
1310 that the great archbishops could be got to work, and then the
results were disappointing. Treves and Cologne, in fact, made
over to Burchard of Magdeburg, in 1310, their authority as com-
missioners for the seizure of the Templar lands, and Clement con-
firmed this with instructions to proceed with vigor. As regards
the persons of the Templars, at Treves an inquest was held in
which seventeen witnesses were heard, including three Templars,
and resulting in their acquittal. At Mainz the Archbishop Peter,
who had incurred Clement's displeasure by transferring to his suf-
fragans his powers as commissioner over the Templar property,
was at length forced to call a provincial council, May 11, 1310.
Suddenly and unbidden there entered the Wild- and Eheingraf,
Hugo of Salm, Commander of Grumbach, with twenty knights
fully armed. There were fears of violence, but the archbishop
asked Hugo what he had to say : the Templar asserted the inno-
cence of the Order ; those who had been burned had steadfastly
denied the charges, and their truth had been prcved by the crosses
on their mantles remaining unburned — a miracle popularly believed,
which had much influence on public opinion. He concluded by
appealing to the future pope and the whole Church, and the arch-
bishop, to escape a tumult, admitted the protest. Clement, on
hearing of these proceedings, ordered the council to be reassembled
and to do its work. He was obeved. The Wildoraf Frederic of
Salm, brother of Hugo and Master of the Ehine-province, offered
to undergo the red-hot iron ordeal, but it was unnecessary. Forty-
nine witnesses, of whom thirty-seven were Templars, were exam-
ined, and all swore to the innocence of the Order. The twelve
non-Templars, who were personages of distinction, were emphatic
in their declarations in its favor. Among others, the Archpriest
John testified that in a time of scarcity, when the measure of corn
rose from three sols to thirty-three, the commandery at Mostaire
fed a thousand persons a day. The result was a verdict of acquit-
304: POLITICAL HERESY— THE STATE.
tal, which was so displeasing to the pope that he ordered Burchard
of Magdeburg to take the matter in hand and bring it to a more
satisfactory conclusion. Burchard seems to have eagerly obeyed,
but the results have not reached us. Archbishop Peter continued
to hope for some adjustment, and when, after the Council of
Vienne, he was forced to hand over the Templar property to the
Hospitallers, he required the latter to execute an agreement to re-
turn the manor of Topfstadt if the pope should restore the Order.*
In Italy the Templars were not numerous, and the pope had
better control over the machinery for their destruction. In Xa-
ples the appeal of Edward II. was in vain. The Angevine dynasty
was too closely allied to the papacy to hesitate, and when a copy
of the bull Pastorali8 jprceeminentice, of November 21, 1307, was
addressed to Kobert, Duke of Calabria, son of Charles II., there
was no hesitation in obedience. Orders were speedily sent out to
all the provinces under the Neapolitan crown to arrest the Tem-
plars and sequestrate their property. Philip, Duke of Achaia and
Romania, the voungest son of Charles, was forthwith commanded
to carry out the papal instructions in all the possessions in the
Levant. January 3, 1308, the officials in Provence and Forcal-
quier were instructed to make the seizure January 23. The Order
was numerous in those districts, but the members must have mostly
fled, for only forty-eight were arrested, who are said to have been
tried and executed, but a document of 1318 shows that Albert de
Blacas, Preceptor of Aix and St. Maurice, who had been impris-
oned in 1308, was then still enjoying the Commandery of St.
Maurice, with consent of the Hospitallers. The Templar mova-
bles were divided between the pope and king, and the landed pos-
sessions were made over to the Hospital. In the kingdom of Na-
ples itself, some fragmentary reports of the papal commission sent
* Harduin. VII. 1353.— Regest. Clement. PP. V. T. IV. pp 3-4 ; T. V. p. 272.
— Du Pay, pp. 62-3, 130-1.— Schmidt, Pabstliche Urkunden, p. 77.— Raynald.
ann. 1310, No. 40. — Raynouard, pp. 127, 270.— Jo. Latomi Cat. Arcbiepp. Moguntt.
(Menken. III. 526).— H. Mutii Chron. Lib. xxn. ann. 1311.— Wilcke, II. 243,
246, 325, 339.— Schottmiiller, I. 445-6.
Even Raynaldus (ann. 1307, No. 12) alludes to the incombustibility of the
Templars' crosses as an evidence in their favor.
THE TEMPLARS. 305
in 1310 to obtain evidence against the Order as a whole and against
the Grand Preceptor of Apulia, Oddo de Yaldric, show that no ob-
stacle was thrown in the way of the inquisitors in obtaining by
the customary methods the kind of testimony desired. The same
may be said of Sicily, where, as we have seen, Frederic of Aragon
had admitted the Inquisition in 1304.*
In the States of the Church we have somewhat fuller accounts
of the later proceedings. Although we know nothing of what
was done at the time of arrest, there can be no doubt that in a
territory subjected directly to Clement his bull of November 22,
1307, was strictly obeyed; that all members of the Order w^ere
seized and that appropriate means were employed to secure con-
fessions. When the papal commission was sent to Paris to afford
the Order an opportunity to prepare its defence at the Council of
Yienne, similar commissions, armed with inquisitorial powers,
were despatched elsewhere, and the report of Giacomo, Bishop of
Sutri, and Master Pandolfo di Sabello, who were commissioned in
that capacity in the Patrimony of St. Peter, although unfortu-
nately not complete, gives us an insight into the real object which
underlay the ostensible purpose of these commissions. In October,
1309, the inquisitors commenced at Pome, where no one appeared
before them, although they summoned not only members of the
Order, but every one who had anything to say about it. In De-
cember they wrent to Yiterbo, where five Templars lay in prison,
who declined to appear and defend the Order. In January, 1310,
they proceeded to Spoleto without finding either Templars or
other witnesses. In February they moved to Assisi, where they
adopted the form of ordering all Templars and their fautors to be
brought before them, and this they repeated in March at Gubbio,
but in both places without result. In April, at Aquila, they sum-
moned witnesses to ascertain whether the Templars had any
churches in the Abruzzi, but not even the preceptor of the Hos-
pitallers could give them any information. All the Franciscans of
the place were then assembled, but they knew nothing to the dis-
credit of the Order. A few da}Ts later, at Penna, they adopted a
* Mag. Bull. Rom. IX. 131-2. — Archivio di Napoli, MSS. Chioccarello, T.
VIII.— Du Puy, pp. 63-4, 87, 222-6.— Raynouard, pp. 200, 279-84.— Schottmul-
ler, II. 108 sqq.
III.— 20
300 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE STATE.
new formula by inviting all Templars and others who desired to
defend the Order to appear before them. Here two Templars
were found, who were personally summoned repeatedly, but they
refused, saying that they would not defend the Order. One of
them, Walter of Xaples, was excused, owing to doubts as to his
being a Templar, but the other, named Cecco, was brought before
the inquisitors and told them of an idol kept for worship in the
treasure-chamber of a preceptory in Apulia, In May, at Chieti,
they succeeded in getting hold of another Templar, who confessed
to renouncing Christ, idol-worship, and other of the charges. By
May 23 they were back in Home issuing citations, but again with-
out result. The following week they were back at Yiterbo, re-
solved to procure some evidence from the five captives imprisoned
there, but the latter again sent word that none of them wished to
appear before the inquisitors or to defend the Order. Five times
in all they were summoned and five times they refused, but the in-
quisitors were not to be balked. ' Four of the prisoners were brought
forward, and by means which can readily be guessed were induced
to talk. From the 7th of June to the 19th, the inquisitors were
employed in receiving their depositions as to renouncing Christ,
spitting on the cross, etc., all of which was duly recorded as free
and spontaneous. On July 3 the commissioners were at Albano
issuing the customary summons, but on the 8th their messenger
reported that he could find no Templars in Campania and Mari-
tima; and a session at Velletri on the 16th was similarly fruitless.
The next day they summoned other witnesses, but eight ecclesias-
tics who appeared had nothing to tell. Then at Segni they heard
five witnesses without obtaining any evidence. Castel Fajole and
Tivoli were equally barren, but on the 27th, at Palombara, Walter
of Kaples was brought to them from Penna, the doubts as to his
membership of the Order having apparently been removed. Their
persistence in this case was rewarded with full details of heretical
practices. Here the record ends, the industrious search of nine
months through these extensive territories having resulted in find-
ing eight Templars, and obtaining seven incriminating depositions. *
Even making allowance for those who may have succeeded in
escaping, it shows, like the rest of the Italian proceedings, how
scanty were the numbers of the Order in the Peninsula.
* Schottmuller, II. 406-19.
THE TEMPLARS. 307
In the rest of Italy Clement's bull of 1307, addressed to the arch-
bishops and ordering an inquest, seems to have been somewhat slack-
ly obeyed. The earliest action on record is an order, in 1308, of Fra
Ottone, Inquisitor of Lombardy, requiring the delivery of three Tem-
plars to the Podesta of Casale. Some further impulsion apparent-
ly was requisite, and in 1309 Giovanni, Archbishop of Pisa, was ap-
pointed Apostolic Nuncio in charge of the affair throughout Tus-
cany, Lombardy, Dalmatia, and Istria, with a stipend of eight
florins per diem, to be assessed on the Templar property. In
Ancona the Bishop of Fano examined one Templar who con-
fessed nothing, and nineteen other witnesses who furnished no in-
criminating evidence, and in Romagnuola, Rainaldo, Archbishop
of Ravenna, and the Bishop of Rimini interrogated two Templars at
Cesena, both of whom testified to the innocence of the Order. The
archbishop, who was papal inquisitor against the Templars in Lom-
bardy, Tuscany, Tarvisina, and Istria, seems to have extended his
inquest over part of Lombardy, though no results are recorded.
Papal letters were published throughout Italy, empowering the
inquisitors to look after the Templar property, of wThich the Arch-
bishops of Bologna and Pisa wTere appointed administrators; it
was farmed out and the proceeds remitted to Clement. Rainaldo
of Ravenna sympathized with the Templars, and no very earnest
efforts were to be expected of him. He called a synod at Bologna
in 1309, where some show was made of taking up the subject, but
no results were reached, and when, in 1310, his vicar, Bonincontro,
wTent to Ravenna with the papal bulls, he made no secret of his
favor towards the accused. At length Rainaldo was forced to
action, and issued a proclamation, November 25, 1310, reciting the
papal commands to hold provincial councils for the examination
and judgment of the Templars, in obedience to which he summoned
one to assemble at Ravenna in January, 1311, calling upon the in-
quisitors to bring thither the evidence which they had obtained by
the use of torture. The council was held and the matter discussed,
but no conclusion was reached. Another was summoned to meet
at Bologna on June 1, but was transferred to Ravenna and post-
poned till June 18. To this the bishops were ordered to bring all
Templars of their dioceses under strict guard, the result of which
was that on June 16, seven knights were produced before the
council. They were sworn and interrogated seriatim on all the
308 POLITICAL HERESY. — THE STATE.
articles as furnished by the pope, which they unanimously denied.
The question was then put to the council whether they should be
tortured, and it was answered in the negative, in spite of the oppo-
sition of two Dominican inquisitors present. It was decided that
the case should not be referred to the pope, in view of the nearness
of the Council of Yienne, but that the accused should be put upon
their purgation. The next day, however, when the council met
this action was reversed and there was a unanimous decision that
the innocent should be acquitted and the guilty punished, reckon-
ing among the innocent those who had confessed through fear of
torture and had revoked, or who would have revoked but for fear
of repetition of torture. As for the Order as a whole, the coun-
cil recommended that it should be preserved if a majority of the
members were innocent, and if the guilty were subjected to abju-
ration and punishment within the Order. In addition to the
seven knights there were five brethren who were ordered to purge
themselves by August 1, before Uberto, Bishop of Bologna, with
seven conjurators; of these the purgations of two are extant,
and doubtless all succeeded in performing the ceremony. It was
no wonder that Clement was indignant at this reversal of all in-
quisitorial usage and ordered the burning of those who had thus
relapsed — though the command was probably not obeyed, as
Bishop Bini assures us that no Templars were burned in Italy.
The council further, in appointing delegates to Yienne, instructed
them that the Order should not be abolished unless it was found
to be thoroughly corrupted. For Tuscany and Lombardy, Clement
appointed as special inquisitors Giovanni, Archbishop of Pisa,
Antonio, Bishop of Florence, and Pietro Giudici of Rome, a canon
of Yerona. These were instructed to hold the inquests, one upon
the brethren individually and one upon the Order. They were
troubled with no scruples as to the use of torture and, as we
shall presently see, secured a certain amount of the kind of testi-
mony desired. Yenice kindly postponed the inevitable uprooting
of the Order, and when it eventually took place there was no un-
necessary hardship.*
* Regest. Clement. PP. Y T. IV. p. 301. — Bini, pp. 420-1, 424, 427-8.—
Raynald. ann. 1309, Xo. 3. — Raynouard, pp. 273-77. — Cbron. Parmens. ann.
1309 (Muratori S. R, I. IX. 880).— Du Puy, pp. 57-8.— Rubei Hist. Ravennat. Ed.
THE TEMPLARS. 309
Cyprus was the headquarters of the Order. There resided the
marshal, Ay me d'Osiliers, who was its chief in the absence of the
Grand Master, and there was the " Convent," or governing body.
It was not until May, 1308, that the papal bull commanding the
arrest reached the island, and there could be no pretence of a secret
and sudden seizure, for the Templars were advised of what had
occurred in France. They had many enemies, for they had taken
an active part in the turbulent politics of the time, and it had been
by their aid that the regent, Amaury of Tyre, had been placed in
power. He hastened to obey the papal commands, but with many
misgivings, for the Templars at first assumed an attitude of de-
fence. Resistance, however, was hopeless, and in a few weeks they
submitted ; their property was sequestrated and they were kept in
honorable confinement, without being deprived of the sacraments.
This continued for two years, until, in April, 1310, the Abbot of
Alet and the Archpriest Tommaso of Rieti came as papal inquisi-
tors to inquire against them individually and the Order in general,
under the guidance of the Bishops of Limisso and Famagosta.
The examination commenced May 1 and continued until June 5,
when it came abruptly to an end, in consequence, doubtless, of the
excitement caused by the murder of the Regent Amaury. All the
Templars on the island, seventy -five in number, together with fifty-
six other witnesses, were duly interrogated upon the long list of
articles of accusation. That the Templars were unanimous in
denying the charges and in asserting the purity of the Order
shows that torture cannot have been employed. More convincing
as to their innocence is the evidence of the other witnesses, con-
sisting of ecclesiastics of all ranks, nobles, and burghers, many of
them political enemies, who yet rendered testimony emphatically
favorable. As some of them said, they knew nothing but good
of the Order. Ail dwelt upon its liberal charities, and many de-
scribed the fervor of the zeal with which the Templars discharged
their religious duties. A few alluded to the popular suspicions
aroused by the secrecy observed in the holding of chapters and
the admission of neophytes ; the Dominican Prior of Nicosia spoke
1589, pp. 517, 521, 522, 524, 525, 526.— Campi, Dell' Hist. Eccles. di Piacenza, P.
in. p. 41. — Barbarauo dei Mironi Hist. Eccles. di Vicenza, II. 157-8. — Anton,
Versuch einer Geschichte der Tempelherrenordens, Leipzig, 1779, p. 139.
310 POLITICAL HERESY.-THE STATE.
of the reports brought from France by his brethren after the arrest,
and Simon de Sarezariis, Prior of the Hospitallers, said that he had
had similar intelligence sent to him by his correspondents, but the
evidence is unquestionable that in Cyprus, where they were best
known, among friends and foes, and especially among those who
had been in intimate relations with the Templars for long periods,
there was general sympathy for the Order, and that there had
been no evil attributed to it until the papal bulls had so unquali-
fiedly asserted its guilt. All this, when sent to Clement, was nat-
urally most unsatisfactory, and when the time approached for the
Council of Vienne, he despatched urgent orders, in August, 1311,
to have the Templars tortured so as to procure confessions. What
was the result of this we have no means of knowing.*
In Aragon, Philippe's letter of October 16, 1307, to Jayme II.
was accompanied with one from the Dominican, Fray Romeo de
Bruguera, asserting that he had been present at the confession
made by de Molay and others. Notwithstanding this, on Novem-
ber 17 Jayme, like Edward II., responded with warm praises of
the Templars of the kingdom, whom he refused to arrest without
absolute proof of guilt or orders from the pope. To the latter he
wrote two days later for advice and instructions, and when, on
December 1, he received Clement's bull of November 22, he could
hesitate no longer. Eamon, Bishop of Valencia, and Ximenes de
Luna, Bishop of Saragossa, who chanced to be with him, received
orders to make in their respective dioceses diligent inquisition
against the Templars, and Fray Juan Llotger, Inquisitor-general of
Aragon, was instructed to extirpate the heresy. As resistance was
anticipated, royal letters were issued December 3 for the immediate
arrest of all members of the Order and the sequestration of their
property, and the inquisitor published edicts summoning them be-
fore him in the Dominican Convent of Valencia, to answer for their
faith, and prohibiting all local officials from rendering them assist-
ance. Jayme also summoned a council of the prelates to meet Jan-
uary 6, 1308, to deliberate on the subject with the inquisitor. A
number of arrests were effected ; some of the brethren shaved and
* Schottmuller, I. 457-69, 494 ; II. 147-400.— Du Puy, pp. 63, 106-7.— Ray-
nouard, p. 285.
THE TEMPLARS. 311
threw off their mantles and succeeded in hiding themselves ; some
endeavored to escape b}r sea with a quantity of treasure, but ad-
verse storms cast them back upon the coast and they were seized.
The great body of the knights, however, threw themselves into
their castles. Ramon Sa Guardia, Preceptor of Mas Deu in Rous-
sillon, was acting as lieutenant of the Commander of Aragon, and
fortified himself in Miravet, while others occupied the strongholds
of Ascon, Montco, Cantavieja, Vilell, Castellot, and Chalamera.
On January 20, 1308, they were summoned to appear before the
Council of Tarragona, but they refused, and Jay me promised the
prelates that he would use the whole forces of the kingdom for
their subjugation. This proved no easy task. The temporal and
spiritual lords promised assistance, except the Count of Urgel, the
Viscount of Rocaberti, and the Bishop of Girona ; but public sym-
pathy was with the Templars. Many noble youths embraced
their cause and joined them in their castles, while the people
obeyed slackly the order to take up arms against them. The
knights defended themselves bravely. Castellot surrendered in
November, soon after which Sa Guardia, in Miravet, rejected the
royal ultimatum that they should march out with their arms and
betake themselves by twos and threes to places of residence, from
which they were not to wander farther than two or three bow-
shots, receiving a liberal allowance for their support, while the
king should ask the pope to order the bishops and inquisitors to
expedite the process. In response to this Sa Guardia addressed
Clement a manly appeal, pointing out the services rendered to re-
ligion by the Order ; that many knights captured by the Saracens
languished in prison for twenty or thirty years, when by abjuring
they could at once regain their liberty and be richly rewarded —
seventy of their brethren were at that moment enduring such a
fate. They were ready to appear in judgment before the pope, or
to maintain their faith against all accusers by arms, as was custom-
ary with knights, but they had no prelates or advocates to defend
them, and it was the duty of the pope to do so. A month after
this Miravet was forced to surrender at discretion, and in another
month all the rest, except Montco and Chalamera, which held out
until near July, 1309. Clement at once took measures to get pos-
session of the Templar property, but Jayme refused to deliver it
to the papal commissioners, alleging that most of it had been de-
312 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE STATE.
rived from the crown, and that he had made heavy outlays on the
sieges ; the most that he would promise was that if the council
should abolish the Order he would surrender the property, subject
to the rights and claims of the crown. Clement seems to have
sought a temporary compromise. In letters of January 5, 1309,
he announces that the Templars of Aragon and Catalonia, like
faithful sons of the Church, had written to him offering to surren-
der their persons and property to the Holy See, and to obey his
commands in every way ; he therefore sends his chaplain, Ber-
tram!, Prior of Cessenon, to receive them and transfer them to the
custody and care of the king, taking from him sealed letters that
he holds them in the name of the Holy See. Whether Jayme as-
sented to this arrangement as to the property does not appear, but
he was not punctilious about the persons of the Templars, and on
July 1-i he issued orders to the viguiers to deliver them to the in-
quisitor and ordinaries when required. In 1310 Clement sent to
Aragon, as elsewhere, special papal inquisitors to conduct the trials.
Thev were met bv the same difficulties as in England : in Aragon
torture was not recognized bv the law, and in 1325 we find the
Cortes protesting against its use and against the inquisitorial pro-
cess as infractions of the recognized liberties of the land, and the
king admitting the protest and promising that such methods should
not be employed except for counterfeiters, and then only in the
case of strangers and vagabonds. Still the inquisitors did what
they could. At their request the king, July 5, 1310, ordered his
baillis to put the Templars in irons and to render their prison
harsher. Then the Council of Tarragona interfered and asked
that they be kept in safe but not afflictive custody, seeing that
nothing had as yet proved their guilt, and their case was still un-
decided. In accordance with this, on October 20, the king ordered
that they should be free in the castles where they were confined,
giving their parole not to escape under pain of being reputed her-
etics. This was not the way to obtain the desired evidence, and
Clement, March 18, 1311, ordered them to be tortured, and asked
Jayme to lend his aid to it, seeing that the proceedings thus far
had resulted only in "vehement suspicion." This cruel command
was not at first obeyed. In May the Templars prayed the king
to urge the Archbishop of Tarragona to have their case decided in
the council then impending, and Jayme accordingly addressed the
THE TEMPLARS. 313
archbishop to that effect, but nothing was done, and in August he
ordered them to be again put in chains and harshly imprisoned.
The papal representatives were evidently growing impatient, as
the time set for the Council of Yienne was approaching, and the
papal demands for adverse evidence remained unsatisfied. Finally,
on the eve of the assembling of the council, the king yielded to the
pope. September 29 he issued an order appointing Umbert de Cap-
depont, one of the royal judges, to assist at the judgment, when
sentence should be rendered by the inquisitors, Pedro de Montclus
and Juan Llotger, along with the Bishops of Lerida and Yich, who
had been especially commissioned by the pope. We have no
knowledge of the details of the investigation, but there is evidence
that torture was unsparingly used, for there is a royal letter of
December 3 ordering medicaments to be prepared for those of the
Templars who might need them in consequence of sickness or tort-
ure. At last, in March, 1312, the Archbishop of Tarragona asked
to have them brought before his provincial council, then about to
assemble, and the king assented, but nothing was done, probably
because the Council of Yienne was still in session ; but after the
dissolution of the Order had been proclaimed by Clement, and the
fate of the members was relegated to the local councils, one was
held, October 18, 1312, at Tarragona, which decided the question
so long pending. The Templars were brought before it and rigor-
ously examined. November 4 the sentence was publicly read,
pronouncing an unqualified acquittal from all the errors, cri